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FOE FINGERS FILTHY FACTORY - ICI Runcorn: A Story of Failure for the Environment Agency's 2nd Birthday

01 Apr 1998

A shocking new report exposes the extent of pollution at ICI Runcorn - possibly Britain's filthiest factory. It also shows that the Environment Agency (EA) has failed to control the factory properly - it has insufficient staff and has failed to force ICI to improve its plant. Even when it secures a conviction against the company, penalties are too light to act as a deterrent. Friends of the Earth is demanding that the EA acts against company directors as individuals in cases of gross pollution.

The report is published on the second birthday of the EA, which FOE describes as “utterly failing in its duty to control pollution from this disgustingly filthy factory”. The report was written by former pollution control officers of the National Rivers Authority (now part of the EA) [1]. One of the authors spent four years regulating the Runcorn site.

The report shows that:

• there were regular major illegal releases of pollutants from the site. The study looked at three of the thirteen processes at Runcorn between February 1996 and August 1997 [2] There were 244 unauthorised pollution incidents, of which 58 were serious and 8 very serious
• chemicals released included mercury (a nervous system toxin), chloroform (a carcinogen and anaesthetic), trichloroethane (suspect carcinogen, narcotic, irritant),hexachlorobenzene (carcinogen), trichlorobenzene (reproductive toxin)
• the local Weston Canal has been used as “ICI's drain”. Large amounts of pollutants are routinely discharged into it, together with large accidental releases. The canal is stratified into two layers. The lower layer consists of brine contaminated with mercury. A footpath runs over the Canal, with public access. The EA does not sample the Weston Canal, but does sample at a weir after the canal joins the River Weaver. In spite of dilution by the river, spills of solvents from the ICI site have resulted in chemical pollution levels twenty to sixty times the EU's Environmental Quality Standard
• groundwater under the site includes chloroform at fifteen times the accepted maximum, and trichloroethane at almost two and half times the accepted maximum
• the EA has too few staff on site to monitor and enforce standards properly. There have never been targets set for ICI to upgrade its plant to standard levels of pollution control. The chlor alkali plant, for example, uses outdated mercury technology,which is not “Best Available Technology Not Exceeding Excessive Cost”, supposedly the standard enforced by the EA. ICI Runcorn therefore has an unfair advantage over better regulated competitors
• ICI has not put in place even the most basic pollution control measures, such as waterproof walls around the vessels containing chemicals
• the heaviest fine levied against ICI has been £300,000 for a leak of more than 150 tonnes of chloroform. The company is currently being prosecuted for a spill of 57 tonnes of trichloroethane. ICI made a net profit of £259 million in 1997, on a turnover of £11 billion.

FOE has demanded that directors of large public companies should be held personally liable for gross pollution incidents. A 1995 opinion survey conducted for FOE showed that 59% of the public agreed that “the heads of companies who illegally pollute the environment should go to prison”. The EA are currently revising their Enforcement Code of Practice and have suggested that individuals as well as companies may be liable for prosecution [3].

Commenting on the report, FOE Pollution Campaigner Dr Michael Warhurst said today:

“This study is one of the most shocking catalogues of gross pollution and feeble enforcement that we have ever seen. ICI is exposed a responsible for possibly Britain's filthiest factory. The Environment Agency is exposed as utterly unable to monitor or enforce decent standards at the site. Frankly, if senior directors of ICI were charged personally every time there was a major pollution incident, the site would have been cleaned up long ago. Perhaps a period of community service,cleaning up the Weston Canal, would help put matters right. We shall be sending our evidence to Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, to demand urgent Government action.”

Notes to Editors

[1] “Audit of Environmental Performance and Regulation of ICI Chemical Works, Runcorn”,conducted for FOE by Peak Associates. Audit Team: M G Matthews, S A Mansfield, V Gray, J Jones.

[2] Chlorinated solvents (production of perchloroethylene, trichloroethane, 1,1-dichloroethane),chlor alkali (production of chlorine, hydrogen and caustic soda), and fluorochemicals.

[3] Speech by Mr Innes Garden of the EA to “The Annual Conference on Pollution Risks”, Strand Palace Hotel, London, 2nd to 3rd March 1998.

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