Leeds Bradford International Airport has been fined a total of £45,000 after admitting releasing potentially harmful surface water into a nearby beck.

The Yeadon-based airport appeared before a district judge at Leeds magistrates court yesterday and admitted four allegations of breaching its Discharge Consent and one charge of causing pollution to enter Scotland Beck, Yeadon.

The charges related to a period between October 2007 and March 2010, which saw a total of 23 breaches, and the company was ordered to pay £9,000 for each of the five charges.

It was also ordered to pay £6,213 in court costs and a £15 victim surcharge in the case brought by the Environment Agency. The court was also asked to take three other offences into account.

Environment Agency team leader Jo Kay said: “All businesses, and in particular airports, have the potential to have a major impact on the environment.

“In this case there was no identifiable harm done but this prosecution shows that there is no room for mediocre practices. Businesses need to be careful at all times that their operation does not harm our environment.”

Craig Burman, prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency told the court that Leeds Bradford International Airport held a Discharge Consent which set out where the company could discharge from and to.

The airport’s consent, issued by the Environment Agency, also dictates the levels of chemicals which are allowed in the effluent. This included the amount of suspended solids, and the amount of oxygen which the discharged matter is allowed to consume.

This is known as the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD).

Mr Burman said the breaches of the consent mainly occurred during the winter when the run-off from the site and its runways was contaminated with de-icer.

The court heard that de-icer has high levels of BOD which means that it consumes a lot of oxygen in the water, reducing the levels for fish and other wildlife.

Mr Burman said that the airport has had a history of environmental offences relating to BOD. In 2007, the Environment Agency prosecuted it for breaching its Discharge Consent and it was fined £24,000 and ordered to pay £4,141.79 in Environment Agency costs.

One of the polluting discharges went into Scotland Beck, which is a rural watercourse that runs into the River Aire. Further downstream it flows through urban areas, however the Environment Agency said that the breaches did not lead to an identifiable harm to the environment.

In mitigation, the court heard that the company had been fully cooperative with the Environment Agency and it has made a significant effort to improve the site’s drainage and to contain pollution on site.