TOLL BROTHERS INC
TOL
Industrials
2
exclusion reasons
1 theme
This page is part of our public exclusion list — a transparency tool that shows which companies we screen out and why. It is not investment advice, and it is not an accusation. But it is subject to change as our understanding of the facts evolves.
Toll Brothers, Inc., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, has a documented history of Clean Water Act violations stemming from its construction activities. In 2012, the company settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice for $741,000 to resolve alleged stormwater violations at its construction sites across 22 states. The settlement required the company to implement a comprehensive, company-wide stormwater compliance program to prevent polluted runoff, which can contaminate local waterways and groundwater.
The company's operations have also been directly linked to groundwater contamination issues requiring state-level remediation permits. For instance, in New Jersey, the company assumed a groundwater discharge permit (NJPDES No. NJ0104396) for the "Crossroads at Oldwick" project. Other records show the company involved in specific groundwater remediation projects, such as the "Weidemann Ranch Mitigation Project" in California and a gasoline-contaminated groundwater remediation system in Pennsylvania.
While Toll Brothers publishes a sustainability report and promotes water-efficient fixtures through its "TollGreen" initiatives, its regulatory record demonstrates repeated failures to manage the water impacts of its large-scale land development, which inherently risks excessive runoff and water source contamination.
Toll Brothers, Inc., one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, has a documented pattern of Clean Water Act violations at its construction sites, resulting in environmental damage from polluted stormwater discharges. In 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice announced a settlement covering 370 construction sites across 23 states, including 40 sites in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The company paid a $741,000 civil penalty for failures to comply with stormwater permits, including inadequate soil stabilization and improper maintenance of controls like silt fences and sediment basins, which led to the discharge of pollutants.
This pattern of non-compliance has continued. In January 2025, the Washington Department of Ecology fined Toll Brothers $1,500 for a violation at a construction site in Camas. The company discharged contaminated concrete washwater with a pH level of 12 into a stormwater inlet flowing to Lake Lacamas. The pH was well above the discharge limit of 8.5, at a level that can harm aquatic life. The EPA settlement required the company to implement a nationwide compliance program, but this recent state-level penalty indicates ongoing failures to prevent contaminated runoff from its active construction sites.
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