Archived press release

ACID TEST FOR ENVIRONMENT AGENCY! Put company directors in the dock following Tees acid leak says FOE

19 February 1999

Friends of the Earth today called for the Environment Agency to prosecute the directors of Tioxide (owned by ICI), following a huge spill of hydrochloric acid which has damaged 35,000 m2 of one of the nation's most important wildlife areas [1]. The spill occurred on Greenabella Marsh, part of Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which itself is part of the wider Tees estuary complex of designated wildlife sites crucial for wild birds. The site is in Peter Mandelson's constituency.

The Environment Agency has served a “prohibition notice” on the factory, effectively stopping the plant from operating. This is the second such notice served on Tioxide in two years. In June 1997 the plant was forced to close down following a release of titanium tetrachloride. Local people were advised to stay indoors and a nearby trunk road was closed. Tioxide manufacturers titanium dioxide, used as a whitener in cosmetics and other products. Further information on pollution from the factory can be found on Friends of the Earth's Factory Watch website (www.foe.co.uk/factorywatch/) and on SSSIs at(www.foe.co.uk/wildplaces).

The Tees Estuary is supposed to be one of the most protected habitats in the United Kingdom. It includes a number of SSSIs, a National Nature Reserve, a Special Protection Area under the European Birds Directive and a Ramsar site under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands. The Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands SSSI is an important area for roosting wild birds.

The quality of the mudflats in the estuary attracts enormous numbers of wintering birds including 24,000 waders. During the Winter months numbers are at their peak. Particularly important species include shelduck, teal, wigeon, knot, curlew and dunlin. The site is also important for common seal. Greenabella Marsh is a particularly important roosting haven for shoveler, teal, wigeon, gadwall, lapwing and golden plover.

Industry and Government wildlife agencies are supposedly united in an initiative known as the Industrial Nature Conservation Area with the aim of maintaining the nature conservation interest of the wider Tees Estuary. However, damage has occurred to SSSIs locally on a number of occasions as a result of factory emissions and spills. For example Cowpen Marsh SSSI was damaged through a spill of naptha in 1997. FOE has recently highlighted the pollution of the estuary through hormone disrupting chemicals from ICI.

Matt Phillips Senior Wildlife Campaigner of Friends of the Earth said:

“This is not the first time that Tioxide has been involved in polluting the local environment. The time has now come for the Environment Agency to take tough action and prosecute the company directors responsible. This is a highly sensitive area with a number of globally important wildlife sites. Companies like Tioxide must be more responsible or made to face the consequences.

We are also calling on the Government to follow through its election pledge and give better protection to our best wildlife sites. Every month the Government delays introducing tougher wildlife laws will result in more damage to SSSIs and the loss of more of our precious wildlife.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Under section 157 of the Environment Protection Act 1990, company directors and managers can be prosecuted for an offence committed with their consent or connivance or attributable to their neglect.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust