POLLUTION, SPILL & FIREWATER NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD & THE PRODUCTS THAT COULD HAVE HELPED PREVENT THESE INCIDENTS FROM BECOMING DISASTERS A FREE MONTHLY eNEWSLETTER SPONSORED BY ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATIONS LTD Copyright EIL 2011
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AUGUST 2011 We are very pleased to announce that Containment News and Environmental Innovations limited (EIL) will be working even more closely with the Environment Agency, future issues of the eNewsletter will include articles, advice and guidance from the EA in our continued efforts to educate all areas of industry on their moral and legal environmental responsibilities. "Reducing the impact and frequency of pollution incidents is an Environment Agency priority. We look forward to working with EIL and Containment News to raise awareness of the huge impact incidents can have on business, the environment and the local community. It‟s also vitally important that sites have adequate systems in place to prevent accidents from escalating into incidents; prevention is better than cure”. Mark Chandler - Pollution Prevention Team Leader with the Environment Agency
NEWS NI Water Fined Over River Lagan Pollution Northern Ireland Water has been fined £1,000 for polluting a waterway. On 13 August 2010, a water quality inspector visited a tributary of the River Lagan, at Lock Keepers Lane, near Shaw's Bridge in Belfast. A sample taken at the time found discharge which contained "poisonous and noxious” matter ... www.bbc.co.uk
NI Water Fined For Londonderry Sewage Spill Northern Ireland Water has been fined £1,000 for polluting a waterway in County Londonderry. In November 2008, an inspector for the Environment Agency found that a stream beside a wastewater treatment works in Greysteel was visibly polluted. Further investigation showed that the stream was grey and smelled of sewage, with discoloured effluent visible for some distance downstream ... www.bbc.co.uk
Deadline For Water Quality Improvements Looms For Ireland It has been two years since the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland was in breach of its obligations to monitor and prevent the pollution of waterways through malfunctioning rural septic tanks. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has produced a revised code of practice that incorporates EU guidelines on site suitability, treatment systems, inspections and maintenance. But legislation is still awaited. Unless a programme of measures for improving water quality has been brought into effect by next year, large and ongoing fines are likely to be imposed on the State ... www.irishtimes.com
Salad Firm‟s Pollution Of Local Pond Costs Them £38,500
A company that prepares bags of salad are not what you think of as being a big spill risk business, however, a failed pump at their factory led to fish deaths in a local angling pond. Wiganbased Hazeldene Foods were prosecuted by the EA and given a £15,000 fine with £3,500 court costs, in addition they had to pay £2,900 to clean up the pond and a further £17,100 to replace the fish (a total of £38,500) ... www.foodmanufacture.co.uk
72% Of UK Rivers Failing European Environmental Targets An Environment Agency report last year showed that 72% of rivers in Wales and England are failing European environmental targets. “We need to raise awareness of these issues and put pressure on the Government to do something about them ahead of the publication of the upcoming Water White Paper. One scheme proposes having an
army of wildlife www.walesonline.co.uk
watchers
to
monitor
rivers
...
Firewater Threat Results In Controlled Burnout At Recycling Plant
A huge blaze at an Essex recycling plant that has burnt for over a week and a half in may have been started maliciously. Following discussions with the EA, fire crews agreed to allow the blaze to “burn itself out in a controlled way” a decision often taken when the risks of firewater pollution outweigh those of the fire itself ... www.theenquirer.co.uk
Gillette Shaving Foam Suspected In Pollution Scare
A shaving foam giant could have come within a whisker of an environmental crisis had contractors not arrived in double quick time. The workmen were called to tackle a thick white substance – believed to have been shaving foam discharged by toiletries giant Gillette – that was flowing into an offshoot of the River Kennet and killing fish there ... www.getreading.co.uk
Vegetable Oil Spill Costs Food Firm £31K Dawn Foods Limited, based in Worcestershire, were fined £23,500 and ordered to pay £7,950 in costs following a vegetable oil spill which affected the River Avon. The charges were brought by the EA under Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2010 and Control of Pollution (Oil storage) Regulations 2001 ... www.oilfiredup.com
Massive Oil Leak At Cumbrian Hotel A massive clean-up operation has been launched involving the Environment Agency, United Utilities and South Lakeland District Council, after up to 10,000 litres of flammable oil leaked from underground tanks at the County Hotel in Kendal ... www.nwemail.co.uk
Swansea Tyre Fire Burns For 22 Days
A blaze within a Swansea factory containing some 5,000 tonnes of shredded tyres has
been extinguished after three weeks. Fire crews had battled the fire at the former Mettoys factory since June 16 and gaining the upper hand required demolishing a good part of the building so that the burning waste could be removed an immersed in large tanks of water ... www.tyrepress.com
Crop Company Fined £27K For Diesel Spill Thousands of litres of diesel leaked into a ditch after a break-in at a farm. It came two days after a major herbicide leak into a local brook. D Chennells Ltd, a crop growing company which runs the farm, was fined £25,000 with £2,015 costs following the separate pollution spills last October ... www.chelmsfordweeklynews.co.uk
Yorkshire Water Fined For Sewage Spill
Yorkshire Water has been ordered to pay more than £12,500 for allowing rotting sewage to get into a stream which leads to a Country Park. When environment officers attended the site two days later “the water was black, smelt strongly and sewage litter was visible along long stretches of the drain” ... www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk
Gvt Cuts Will Lead To Long Term Damage Of Contaminated Land The Contaminated Land Network of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management is calling for urgent action to address cuts in the public funding streams to the brownfield sector, which may contribute to pollution effects and ongoing damage to property and the environment ... www.farminguk.com
Fire Crews Attend Waste Plant Chemical Leak Fire crews from both Leicestershire and Warwickshire were called to a chemical leak at a waste plant in Hinckley. Six fire engines had to be called to Augean‟s waste transfer station on the A5 after they received reports of a leak of 1,000 litres of hydrogen peroxide at the plant ... www.hinckleytimes.net
Recycling Fire Director To Repay £45K Over Pollution The director of a fridge recycling firm on the Shropshire/Mid Wales border has been ordered to repay £45,000 after being found guilty of causing pollution to the environment and risking harm to health ... www.shropshirestar.com
Storm Overflow Sewage Concerns For Snowdonia Lake Poor water quality in a lake in Snowdonia is being caused by sewage, according to a report by the Environment Agency Wales (EAW). The EAW says despite some improvements, more needs to be done around storm overflows which, while protecting homes, can lead to sewage in the lake ... www.bbc.co.uk
Civil Sanctions Used For First Time In UK
The Environment Agency is the first enforcement body to use new civil sanctions against an organisation that broke environmental regulations - as an alternative to criminal prosecution. The EA has accepted an offer of £21,000 from Invensys PLC, an engineering and information technology company headquartered in London, for packaging waste offences. This funding will be given to specified organisations to drive environmental improvements in local communities ... www.clickgreen.org.uk
London‟s New Super Sewer May Not Be So Super Residents of a US city with a similar "super-sewer" to the one planned for London have said several basements were flooded during downpours in 2010, despite the presence of the tunnel. It was believed that the tunnel „had overcapacitated itself with the amount of rainfall, so instead of letting the water go out into the lakes, or whatever, a lot of this backed up in the residences” ... www.bbc.co.uk
Transfer Of Ownership Of Private Sewers The Government is introducing changes which will transfer ownership of private sewers that connect to the public sewerage system to the water and sewerage companies. The new Regulations came into force on 1 July 2011, and the transfer will take place on 1 October 2011 ... www.nfuonline.com
Pressure Mounts To Clean Up Seawater
A ban on swimming in Blackpool has moved a step closer – prompting a pollution expert to step up his campaign to raise awareness of the threat to the resort. Blackpool Central beach bathing water was slammed as a failure by the Good Beach Guide earlier this year – and it has already failed one of its inspections this year. The result could spell bad news for the holiday hot-spot which needs to pass its inspections over the next 5 years to prevent swimming being banned under new European guidelines ... www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk
EA Investigates Raw Sewage Leaks Into River Alyn An investigation is under way after raw sewage was found leaking into a river in Flintshire. EA Wales is urging residents to prevent pollution from damaging streams by checking their drainage. Environment officers have investigated reports of sewage pollution to two streams in the area which drain into the River Alyn, a popular destination for anglers ... www.flintshirechronicle.co.uk
Pollution Fears After Brine Leak Brine floods in the Lostock Green countryside have left villagers worried about pollution in their environment. Trees, grass and bushes have been left brown and dead after the floods, which happened twice in July. “It‟s killling plants and trees and draining into Wade Brook, which has just got fish and shrimp back in it ... www.northwichguardian.co.uk
Toxic Spill At Suffolk Factory
Firefighters were called to International Fragrances and Flavours after a tonne of powder blew out from a tanker. A lot of the powder has been covered with salvage sheets but some of it is reacting with rain, firefighters said. Crews wearing chemical protection suits were at the scene dealing with the incident ... www.bbc.co.uk
Scottish Company Fined £30K For Illegal Water Work An Inverness-shire engineering company has been fined £30,000 for illegal water work carried out on a burn. S D Cameron pled guilty to carrying out engineering works without authorisation under the Water Environment Regulations 2005. The works by S D Cameron included widening of the burn by removing sediment such as stones, gravel and sand, which resulted in large quantities of sediment being deposited in river water causing discolouration in the Belladrum Burn and River Beauly ... www.edie.net
MP Warns Of Cumbria Fish „Contamination‟ From Chernobyl Cumbrian fish are still showing signs of contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, it has been claimed. An anti-nuclear MP used the claim to back up his belief that nuclear power was “phenomenally dangerous” and new build should not go ahead ... www.nwemail.co.uk
Chemical Spill Seals Off Industrial Estate Firefighters put a 50-metre cordon around a HGV near Manchester International Freight Terminal, after a highly flammable petrol-based spirit had leaked from the 24,000 litre tanker ... www.menmedia.co.uk
Oil Covered Deads Birds Found On Dorset Beach
Dead sea birds covered in oil have been found washed up on Dorset's Jurassic Coast. About half a dozen birds, including fulmars, gannets and guillemots, were discovered along Chesil Beach, near Portland. It was likely that a ship had dumped its engine oil at sea ... www.bbc.co.uk
PLEASE REMEMBER - In the vast majority of cases the fines that appear in the press and in Containment News do not include the remediation costs, which usually dwarf the size of the court cost and fine. For example in April 2010 a UK water company was fined £15k for polluting a local river, however the true costs were far greater; tankering away the spilt chemical £32,600 Plugging the leak £8,300 fish surveys £26,000 Installing new equipment to detect a leak £60,000 Charge for EA officers attending £2,271* restocking the stretch of river £63,500. When added to the fine and prosecution costs the incident cost £211,164. (*this figure can be much higher, in May 2010 a fire at a chemical factory in Huddersfield was hit with a bill for £300,000 from the Environment Agency and HSE for their incident investigation costs). In most cases standard liability insurance will not cover this. Please check with your insurance company. The above figures do not include lost production costs or the damage to a company‟s reputation and share price, in many cases suppliers and customers have a tendency to distance themselves from a company under investigation. To read a Green Paper and find out more about the true cost of a pollution incident please click HERE to discuss arranging a no obligation site safety survey please call 0800 731
9313
CHINA: Oil Spill Half Size Of London Unreported For A Month It has taken a month and an 840 square km oil slick, but the government has finally admitted to a seabed leak from wells in the Bohai Sea. Industrial accidents and coverups happen all over the world. According to the Guardian, there were more than 100 unpublicised oil and gas spells from European and American Wells in the north sea between 2009-2010 ... www.guardian.co.uk
USA: Dow Chemical To Pay $2.5M Fine Dow Chemical agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle alleged air, water and waste violations at its Midland, Mich., chemical manufacturing and research complex, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency said. The government agencies said Dow also agreed to implement a comprehensive program to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants from leaking equipment ... www.myfoxdc.com
SINGAPORE: More Environmental Control Officers The National Environment Agency (NEA) has partnered Singapore Polytechnic (SP) to train environmental control officers, who will help to keep construction sites free of pollution. NEA expects to add about 900 more such officers to the construction industry over the next three years. Currently, there are 1,691 of them ... www.channelnewsasia.com
USA: Appeals Court Upholds Pollution Rules A federal appeals court turned down a bid by utilities, farmers and the South Florida Water Management District to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from imposing new water pollution rules across the state. The new rules, which have stirred tremendous controversy among businesses and in Congress, are designed to limit the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus now flowing into the state‟s lakes, rivers, streams, bays and estuaries, causing toxic algae blooms and fish kills ... www.miamiherald.com
USA: $381K Environmental Fine „A Wake-Up Call For Caltrans Caltrans (the state agency responsible for highway, bridge, and rail transportation planning, construction, and maintenance) has paid $381,000 in state water pollution penalties after regulators complained of weak controls on polluted stormwater runoff during construction of the Bay Area's first toll lane on Interstate 680. One regulator called the penalty a wake-up call for Caltrans to prevent runoff carrying silt, dirt and other pollutants that can foul creeks and smother fish and other aquatic animal ... www.mercurynews.com
ITALY: Finding Space For Rome‟s Rubbish Rome‟s landfill site Malagrotta has faced closure for years but the regional authorities are still struggling to find alternatives for the 5,000 tons of rubbish the city produces each day. The problems of where to put Rome‟s new waste dump and treatment plant now that Malagrotta is said to be finally closing, as well as how to solve the refuse mountains in Naples, are almost daily fodder for Italian news channels ... www.wantedinrome.com
BRAZIL: Efforts To Improve Water Quality Falling Short Despite increased spending on sanitation works, the water quality in rivers near large urban centers in Brazil ranges from poor to very poor. Some say the reason is the
development model chosen by the South American nation. The 2011 report on the country's water resources by the national water regulatory agency (ANA) was received with satisfaction by the government: in terms of availability and quality, 90.6 percent of the country's freshwater sources presented "good" results, according to report coordinator ... www.international.to
JERSEY: Campaign To Prevent Water Pollution Schools and businesses in Jersey are being asked to get involved in a campaign to prevent the sea and rivers being polluted. The Blue Fish Campaign will highlight the effects of polluting road drains that flow into reservoirs and streams ... www.bbc.co.uk
USA: Public Urge EPA To Protect Waterways More than 170,000 public comments were delivered to the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters calling for strong clean water protections. These comments, collected across the country, reflect widespread public endorsement of the Administrationâ€&#x;s efforts to restore Clean Water Act protections to critical waterways and drinking water sources ... www.environmentamerica.org
ITâ€&#x;S NOT ALL BAD NEWS :-) EA Award For Welsh Farmer Gwyndaf Jones, a Welsh livestock farmer who has reduced inorganic fertiliser inputs by improving his slurry management has been rewarded by the Environment Agency. He was awarded the Simple Solutions Farming Award, created to give recognition to farmers who make small changes to improve profits and benefit the environment ... www.fwi.co.uk
Survey Shows return Of Spawning Salmon
Surveys carried out along the Churnet River last month found 85 newly-hatched salmon fry at Eaton, Dovedale, Rocester, Quicksill and Oakamoor, which experts say indicates a successful growth rate of newly-introduced salmon. Since 2004 the Environment Agency, in partnership with the Trent Rivers Trust, has improved water quality, created fish passes on the weir and re-stocked the river with new fish, to improve levels of salmon breeding which had been dwindling over the years ... www.ashbournenewstelegraph.co.uk
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Environmental Innovations Limited (EIL) will be exhibiting at the Recycling and Waste Management (RWM) Exhibition again this year between 13th and 15th September 2011 at the NEC Birmingham Hall 20 Stand 2582 .
CONTAINMENT NEWS IS SPONSORED BY
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New 12V Rugged Combined Power Supply/Charger ... Designed for 12V or 24V battery backed and assisted applications the EIL0027 is available to OEMs or as part of one of our containment and/or pollution monitoring systems… www.environmental-innovations.biz
USEFUL DOWNLOADS: Civil Sanctions For Environmental Offences England And Wales Environment Civil Sanction Orders came into force in England on 6 April 2010 and in Wales on 15 July 2010. They allow the environmental regulators in England and Wales to impose civil sanctions on a business committing certain environmental offences, as an alternative to prosecution and criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment. The government believes civil sanctions will make environmental law enforcement more flexible and effective for both regulators and businesses www.netregs.gov.uk
EA Revises Oil Care Campaign And Storage Regulations The leaflet is written to give businesses who store oil an overview of the Regulations and help them understand if they need to comply. The revised leaflet includes references to up to date regulations, for example the Environment Permitting Regulations 2010 and Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil Regulations 2010, and to include the EA‟s new civil sanctions powers ... www.publications.environmentagency.gov.uk
Spill Prevention For Transport, Logistics And Transport Industry Tackling the key spill prevention issues within the transport, logistics and distribution industry and building and managing an effective and comprehensive spill prevention
plan ... www.clearpathanalysis.co.uk
Fertiliser Recommendations For Agricultural And Horticultural Crops The purpose of the Manual is to help farmers and their advisers achieve good nutrient management, and so enable them to produce more food cost effectively in a way that improves the quality of our water, air and soil ... www.defra.gov.uk [publication modified 9/6/2010]
ESSENTIAL READING FOR EVERYONE ! The Environmental Damage (Prevention and remediation) Regulations 2009 transpose the requirements of Directive 2004/35 on environmental liability. They introduce new obligations to ensure that the polluter pays for damage caused, and will supplement existing legislation in this area. www.defra.gov.uk for FAQs on the regulations
NetRegs Northern Ireland and Scotlands Do you need a pollution prevention and control permit? www.grdp.org
New Regulations For Farmers A new learning tool to help Farmers understand regulations etc relating to agricultural waste, essential in view of the new enforcement powers given to the Environment Agency and Natural England ... www.farmwasteen.netregs.gov.uk/
Emergency Contact Numbers A useful and freely downloadable wall chart that may be printed and pinned on your office or factories' notice board. In contains details on how to contact the Environment Agency, Flood Forum, etc... www.environmental-innovations.biz
Flood Facts A collection of useful facts about flooding........ www.environmental-innovations.biz
The Full Text of the Environmental Liability Directive Follow the above link to the ELD and other useful information about the environment on the DEFRA website. www.netregs.gov.uk
Pollution Prevention Guidelines PPG 21 To obtain the latest copy of the Incident Planning Guidelines PPG21 from the Environment Agency website. www.environment-agency.gov.uk
Managing Fire Water and Major Spillages PPG18 To obtain the latest copy of the Pollution Prevention Guidelines PPG 18 from the Environment Agency website. www.environment-agency.gov.uk
Protecting our Water Soil and Air A Defra code of good agricultural practice for farmers, growers and land managers. www.defra.gov.uk
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