Company to pay £150k to charity following pollution incident
A food ingredients manufacturer has offered an enforcement undertaking following a pollution incident in Stoke-on-Trent. This has been accepted by the Environment Agency
Between July and September 2015, polluting matter was discharged from Fuerst Day Lawson’s site and entered the Newstead Brook. These discharges adversely impacted the watercourse.
Enforcement Undertaking
A £150,000 donation by the company to the Trent Rivers Trust was accepted in September 2018 and will be used to fund environmental projects in the Stoke-on-Trent area.
Fuerst Day Lawson has carried out extensive improvements to its site to prevent reoccurrence of the issue. The company has also paid a significant proportion (£119,143.39) of the Environment Agency’s costs from the incident.
Related Legislation
Enforcement undertakings for environmental offences were introduced under the Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010. Enforcement undertakings present an alternative to prosecution or a monetary penalty.
Enforcement undertaking reached between Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has received a £200,000 donation from an enforcement undertaking following a pollution incident near Doncaster.
Yorkshire Water Services offered the enforcement undertaking to the Environment Agency following a pollution incident near Hatfield Colliery. In September 2015 the Environment Agency identified that foul sewage was being released via burst sewer pipework. This led to raw sewage entering the Pissy Beds Drain, a tributary that eventually leads into the River Trent.
Elevated ammonia and low dissolved oxygen levels were detected in the watercourse as a result, potentially harming fish and invertebrate life.
Once aware of the incident, Yorkshire Water Services acted to contain pollution while the burst was located, stopped and fixed.
Enforcement Undertaking
The enforcement undertaking was accepted by the Environment Agency in February 2019. Yorkshire Water Services donated £200,000 to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which will be used to fund the Humberhead Levels Nature Improvement Area.
In addition to the enforcement undertaking, Yorkshire Water Services cleaned the watercourse and have repaired the rising main that burst. The company also paid the Environment Agency’s costs in full.
Yorkshire Water Services also reviewed their telemetry system to ensure that early warnings are received and acted on. Additional alarms have been put in place.
SEPA launches formal regulatory investigation into flaring by ExxonMobil Chemical following a large number of complaints
On Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019, SEPA responded to 600 complaints of unplanned flaring at ExxonMobil Chemical Ltd in Mossmorran, Fife.
Whilst flaring is an important safety mechanism and is permitted through permit conditions, SEPA deployed a full regulatory, air quality and noise monitoring response. This response follows final warning letters issued in April 2018 where flaring which was found to be “preventable and unacceptable”.
Despite the incidents on 21 April, monitoring on Monday 22 April showed no cause for concern. SEPA operates an online hub to relay information on the facility.
With the company advising that flaring is likely to continue over the coming days, SEPA has reiterated the importance of restarting the plant as quickly as possible to minimise flaring required.
A BAT assessment was subsequently submitted by ExxonMobil Chemical, which remains under review by SEPA.
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