Former landfill operator fined for failing to monitor emissions

A firm based in Morley, Leeds, has been fined £22,000 for failing to monitor the methane and carbon dioxide being emitted by two defunct landfill sites in the area.

Mone Brothers Civil Engineering pleaded guilty to the 11 offences brought to its door by the Environment Agency and was fined £22,000 along with £3,045 in prosecution costs.

Dumping at the sites in question, Thorpe Quarry and Apex Quarry, ceased in 2001 and 2002 respectively, but the court heard that the firm, despite holding permits for both, failed to monitor emissions from boreholes and submit the data to the agency.

Mone Brothers were approached several times to establish the boreholes after the sites closed but did not install them until last year.

This news comes after ATA, the owner of an unauthorised landfill site in Northwich, was fined £50,000 by Chester Magistrates Court as its operations were branded "financially motivated" and damaging by the environment Agency.