Winvic has been hit with a £160,000 fine and ordered to pay £25,000 in costs for polluting a brook in the East Midlands.
The contractor worked on the £67m East Midlands Gateway (EMG), where it built a strategic rail freight interchange that included a rail interchange hub and 10 logistics plots for the likes of Amazon and Games Workshop.
Nottingham Magistrates Court heard earlier this week that Winvic had polluted the local Hemington Brook with clay solids while it was working on the site in September 2019.
The Environment Agency (EA), which brought the case, said a biological survey found the discharge from the site had caused “gross and chronic” pollution that had affected invertebrates living nearby. The EA said it received a tip-off from a member of the public after the brook started “running red with silt pollution”.
In a statement provided to Construction News, Winvic expressed acknowledgement and “regret” for its actions but noted: “While industry-defined and agreed best-practice mitigation measures were in place at the site, a number of factors combined to leave Winvic – in the words of the court – ‘between a rock and a hard place’.”
These factors included “a very real and potential fatal risk” of bird strikes posed by migrating flocks to flights near East Midlands Airport following very heavy rainfall. “The decision was therefore taken to discharge water from the ponds in order to avoid the possibility of a more catastrophic event occurring,” Winvic said.
Northampton-based Winvic reported that a drain-blocker had failed, which allowed the contaminated contents of two ponds to drain and discharge into the brook. But when the EA attended the site a second time it found that the discharge had not been stopped.
Analysis found the level of suspended solids was between 1,200 and 1,400 milligrams per litre downstream. In comparison, the average in 2019/20 was 50 milligrams with a maximum of 240 milligrams.
High levels of suspended solids in water can inhibit plant photosynthesis and clog or irritate fish gills, while also threatening to smother fish-spawning areas and invertebrate habitats.
The court accepted the offence was partly due to “unprecedented rainfall” in the area. Winvic stated: “Both the EA and the court accepted that the environmental harm caused by the water discharge was ‘minor and localised… incurring low costs through clean-up, site restoration or animal rehabilitation’.”
However, the firm pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 38 (1) (a) and Regulation 12 (1) (b) of the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016 by causing pollution and was fined £160,000. The contractor was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £25,577.79.
Winvic insisted in its statement to CN that its construction work on the EMG site “was fully in accordance with a Development Consent Order granted by the Secretary of State, and more specifically, fully complied with the recommendations within the Construction Management Framework Plan and Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) guidance.”
It added that it “also implemented additional measures to treat the water and manage the site run-off. All flood prevention measures were endorsed by the EA before the project commenced. The additional measures employed by Winvic were reviewed by the EA and noted as being unprecedented in respect of water management. Furthermore, we are pleased that the measures have improved the pre-existing local situation, significantly reducing the risk of potential flooding at Hemington.”
Ian Firkins, EA senior environment manager for the East Midlands, welcomed the sentence, adding that it should “act as a deterrent” to other companies that breach environmental legislation.
“As a regulator, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to pursue companies that fail to meet its obligations to the environment,” Firkins said. “The conditions of an environmental permit are designed to protect people and the environment.”
Winvic insisted that it “welcomed working with the EA throughout the process to ensure lessons could be learned and applied across the business. Winvic is committed to ‘doing it right’ and strives for continuous improvement in all areas. We continue to liaise with the EA on numerous projects to achieve successful outcomes”.
This story was updated on 3 March with comment from Winvic.
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Joshua Stein