18.12.2008

Chemical Company Fined After Oil Escapes From Pipeline

Avonmouth company, Sevalco, have been ordered to pay £13,314 in fines and costs after the main oil delivery pipe to its factory sprang a leak and polluted a tributary of the River Severn. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

Sevalco make carbon black - a chemical dye mainly used in the manufacture of tyres. It is also used in some plastic and liquid products. The raw material, heavy oil, is delivered by tanker to Avonmouth docks and pumped via a pipeline to the Sevalco site at Chittening.

On February 2, 2008 the Agency was alerted after oil was discovered in Stup Pill Rhine at Chittening. Oil was visible along the whole length of the watercourse, a distance of around 600 metres, and was flowing out into the River Severn estuary - a protected area of high conservation value and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

An Agency officer traced the pollution to a concrete wall under a road bridge where oil was trickling out of a small pipe close to the Sevalco site. She noticed an oily rainbow sheen on the surface of the water.

Sevalco was alerted and absorbent booms deployed to retain the oil. Closer inspection revealed a brown oil seeping from the bank of the rhine. The leak was close to a section of underground pipeline that ran under Chittening Road. Part of the pipeline was excavated and oil was seen collecting in a trench beneath the pipe.

A court heard the four-mile long pipeline was installed in 1951. All the above ground sections had been replaced in 2001. However, it was decided not to replace two short underground sections after they were pressure tested and found to be in good condition.

With advice from the Agency, Sevalco began removing oil from the rhine and excavating contaminated soils. By February 19, 2008 the company had emptied the pipeline of oil and were continuing to use absorbent booms to contain oil in the rhine. However, on February 27, 2008, Agency officers saw the containment booms had become saturated and had failed. Oil was again being carried down to the estuary.

Technical investigations revealed a section of Sevalco's underground pipe had become corroded and oil had leaked out of a series of small holes into the surrounding ground before seeping into the Stup Pil Rhine.

"This was a potentially serious pollution incident in which oil escaped into the environment in a highly sensitive area of international importance. While Sevalco responded, it did not replace absorbent booms with sufficient frequency and this resulted in oil escaping down the entire length of the rhine and into the estuary on two occasions,' said Simon Price for the Environment Agency."

Sevalco Limited, of Severn Road, Chittening, Bristol, was today fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £5,314 costs by Bristol magistrates after pleading guilty to causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter controlled waters contrary to Section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.

In 2004, following another Environment Agency prosecution, Sevalco was fined £240,000 and ordered to pay £70,000 costs after the company falsified records for levels of cyanide in effluent released into the Severn estuary. It was prosecuted for failing to keep accurate records and exceeding limits permitted under its licence.

In 2005 the company was given a formal caution by the Environment Agency for the unauthorised release of carbon black into the air.