Environmental incidents and regulatory
Our objective is to have zero significant environmental incidents each year, and zero prosecutions.
In 2006 we continued to record, investigate and learn from environmental incidents by reporting all incidents through Traction and embedding the investigation process. Good progress has been made and we will continue with this during 2007.
Environmental Incidents
Significant |
Moderate |
Minor |
||||||||||
2006 |
05 |
04 |
03 |
2006 |
05 |
04 |
03 |
2006 |
05 |
04 |
03 |
|
UK |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
7 |
8 |
11 |
21 |
270 |
270 |
265 |
284 |
Europe |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
53 |
0 |
US/ROW |
0 |
0 |
|
|
0 |
0 |
|
|
2 |
1 |
|
|
In 2006, 282 environmental incidents were recorded in Balfour Beatty's worldwide operations. 278 of those occurred in the UK (281, 2005).
Of these, none were considered to have an irreversible impact on the environment. One was judged to be significant: during piling operations an underground waste water pipe was damaged and as a result discharged into a nearby river. Nine incidents were of moderate environmental impact and the remainder were minor in nature, resulting in either no or little environmental damage beyond our site boundaries. The majority of incidents are small spills, for example of oil from plant and equipment.
In other parts of Europe two minor environmental incidents, were recorded.
Our US operations reported two environmental incidents in total, none of which was significant.
Environmental Incident Breakdown
Release Type |
No Of Incidents |
Discharge |
16 |
Emission |
9 |
Spill |
199 |
Disturbance |
36 |
Waste incident |
22 |
Complaints
Each company has systems for recording complaints. These are addressed and formally closed out.
UK businesses halved the number of environmental statutory nuisance complaints receiving a total of 343 in 2006 compared with 734 in 2005. As in 2005 the majority of complaints are associated with noise and dust and arise from those businesses working with a high public interface.
Regulatory Activity
UK
UK Regulatory Activity |
|
||||
UK Regulatory Action |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
Prosecutions |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
Enforcements and Prohibition Notices |
0 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
Warning Letters |
11 |
5 |
12 |
9 |
0 |
Visits by Environmental Inspectors |
37 |
217 |
226 |
263 |
309 |
Convictions |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Fines |
0 |
£23,000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
No environmental prosecutions were received by our UK businesses in 2006 compared to two in 2005.
UK sites received 37 visits by enforcement authorities during 2006 down from 217 in 2005 (226 in 2004, 263 in 2003, and 309 in 2002).
No statutory enforcement notices were received in 2006 in the UK compared to three in 2005.
11 warning letters were received from enforcing authorities during 2006 compared to five warning letters in 2005. The warnings related to waste disposal, fly tipping, noise outside permitted levels and silty water run-off.
Outside UK
Non-UK operations reported no visits by enforcement authorities during 2006 compared to 26 in 2005 (38 in 2004).
There were two overseas prosecutions in 2006, the same as in 2005. Gammon Construction was prosecuted for an illegal water discharge in Hong Kong and for a noise offence in Singapore.