A housing construction company and its contracted engineers will donate a total of £135,000 to the Aire Rivers Trust after polluting Pitty Beck multiple times while building a new housing estate near Bradford.
Image: Evidence of pollution at Pitty Beck
Keepmoat Homes Ltd, a company that specialises in building residential housing and which owns the site at Heron’s Reach near Bradford, will donate £100,000, while Applebridge Construction Limited, which were contracted by Keepmoat Homes for the first phase of the development, will donate £35,000.
An investigation by the Environment Agency found that Pitty Beck was polluted a number of times between October 2016 and November 2018 while construction was underway.
The companies submitted Enforcement Undertakings to the Environment Agency, which have now been accepted.
“Housing construction companies ... have responsibility to ensure work does not impact on the environment”
Environment Agency Area Environment Manager Ben Hocking said:
“Housing construction companies - like all companies carrying out any major development work - have a responsibility to ensure their work does not impact on the environment and we will take action when pollution occurs.
“While we will always take forward prosecutions in appropriate cases, Enforcement Undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements.”
On 13 October 2016 Keepmoat Homes reported pollution from its site, and an Environment Agency officer confirmed that silty water was running from the site and into the beck. The same happened on numerous occasions over subsequent months. The company did not have an environmental permit to allow for treated water to be discharged into the beck.
The company obtained this permit in October 2017. This allowed the discharge of water from one outlet at a maximum rate of no more than 40mg/l of suspended solids. Only days later, a discharge containing 555 mg/l entered the beck from a different outlet, followed by the first of several permit breaches from the permitted outlet containing more than the allowed concentration of suspended solids.
As part of the requirements of the Enforcement Undertaking, Keepmoat Homes revised its surface water management plan for the site, constructed urban drainage ponds, purchased a siltbuster and gulley bags to remove sediment from the water leaving site and improved its inspection and monitoring regime.
Applebridge Construction employed a full time health and safety manager, reviewed and updated its environmental management system and delivered bespoke training to staff.
Water Minister Rebecca Pow commented:
“Companies that damage our natural environment must be held to account and enforcement action like this ensures polluters pay and help clean up our rivers and waterways.
“Our Plan for Water is delivering more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement right across the water sector.”
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