The UK's largest waste management company, Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd, has this month been ordered to pay £166,000 in fines and costs following an incident at its hazardous waste treatment facility in Bootle. A toxic fumes release on 27 April, 2006, led to four members of staff having to receive medical treatment and several members of the public reporting side effects.
Veolia pleaded guilty to eight charges which were brought against it in a joint prosecution by the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Since the incident, the firm has completed a full review of its procedures and introduced safeguards to ensure a similar incident never occurs again.
On the date in question, the Bootle site was found to have breached a number of the conditions of its waste management licence, including accepting waste which it was not permitted to hold and then storing it with another chemical substance. A resulting reaction led to toxic fumes being released, which affected both members of staff at the facility and the public. The Agency said the situation was made worse because the company's emergency plans were not followed, were inadequate and hindered the emergency services.
Commenting on the case, Mark Easedale of the Agency said, "This incident highlights the importance of ensuring correct procedures are followed to make sure there is no harm to the environment when hazardous waste is being handled. This was a serious incident which could easily have been avoided." A Veolia spokesperson responded, "We regret our involvement in this case, which is an isolated incident. We have co-operated fully with the HSE and the Agency throughout their investigations and have put in place new procedures to help prevent this type of incident being repeated in the future."
