Melis­sa Doughty

Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor/CEO of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) Dr Joth Singh says Home Con­struc­tion Lim­it­ed (HCL), faces a "sub­stan­tive fine" for its breach of a lead­con­tain­ment site in San­ta Rosa West. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Singh said the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny would be giv­en a con­sent agree­ment. The agree­ment, he said, would out­line the terms and con­di­tions.

Al­though Singh could not state an ex­act amount he said the com­pa­ny could pay in ex­cess of a mil­lion dol­lars. Singh said the area had been fenced and all work on the site stopped. HCL breached the lead-con­tain­ment site in June-Ju­ly ear­li­er this year. As a con­se­quence of the vi­o­la­tion, HCL did not re­ceive a Cer­tifi­cate of En­vi­ron­men­tal Clear­ance (CEC) as is re­quired. The EMA or­dered HCL to halt all work on the site as well as to re­seal the site af­ter test­ing for lead-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the Ari­ma Riv­er was done.