VANCOUVER — Three companies pleaded guilty Monday for their part in a 2007 oil spill in Burnaby that damaged nearby homes and leaked into Burrard Inlet.

Trans Mountain Pipeline, which owns the pipeline, and two contractors, B. Cusano Contracting and R.F. Binnie and Associates, each pleaded guilty to one count of polluting the environment under the Environmental Management Act.

A total of 26 charges were laid after work on a sewer project ruptured the pipeline in July 2007, setting off a 12-metre geyser of crude oil that showered 11 nearby houses and led to the evacuation of 250 residents.

The companies are expected to pay a total of more than $500,000 in fines and penalties.

The sentence will be imposed on Nov. 10 by Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Connie Bagnall.

The plea agreement between the Crown and defence avoided a long trial, which was set for 17 weeks.

Crown prosecutor Jim Cryder told the court that Cusano was hired by the City of Burnaby to dig a trench to install sewer pipe running parallel to the oil pipeline, which is operated by Kinder Morgan.

Cusano was given two sets of diagrams with conflicting information, the court was told. The pipeline was located one metre off the location marked on project drawings.

A Cusano employee was working on an excavator when the pipeline was punctured on July 24, 2007. A total of 224,000 litres of crude oil leaked into the environment, with more than 70,000 litres reaching Burrard Inlet.

Binnie, an engineering firm, was hired by Burnaby to oversee the project. A Kinder Morgan inspector located and marked 30 metres of the pipeline, but not all of it.

Kinder Morgan was originally charged but did not plead guilty as part of Monday's plea agreement.

About $15 million was spent cleaning up the spill in Burrard Inlet and millions more were spent on the cleanup of the homes affected.

Prosecutor Jim MacAulay told the judge that the offence of polluting the environment carries a maximum $1 million fine. He asked the court to impose a $1,000 fine on each of the companies, who should also be ordered to pay $149,000 each into a habitat-conservation trust fund.

Trans Mountain also agreed to pay another $100,000 into an educational trust fund to help a non-profit hold workshops to prevent a similar occurrence.

"That way, the bulk of the penalty goes back into the environment rather than general revenue," MacAulay told the court.

He said the companies had no previous record of infractions.