AWS Eco Plastics told to pay 28,000 over diesel spill pollution

According to the Environment Agency, the first incident occurred in October 2008 after a night workman had been filling generators on a roof with diesel from a main tank on the ground floor.

He forgot to turn the pump off for more than two hours, causing a spill of about 1,000 litres. Oil ran into surface water drains and into the water at Helmswell Cliff lake and killed two adult mute swans.

The EA said that AWS contacted it to inform it of the spill and officers advised immediately blocking drains on the roof to prevent any further pollution.

Second spillage
The second incident occurred in March 2009, when an unknown AWS worker failed to turn off a diesel pump after using it to fill the tank of a forklift truck. Around 740 litres of diesel was spilled, some of which ended up polluting the lake.

Following the first incident, an AWS representative told investigating officers that the arrangement of filling the generators on the roof was a temporary measure and that the company had not had time to conduct a proper risk assessment.

He said that the spill kit was running low because there had been a smaller spill four days before and that no records had been kept because the records system was new.

After the second incident, AWS’s former site manager told Environment Agency officers that the member of staff who had been operating the diesel pump had not been authorised to fill the forklift.

Since then, the company has introduced a standard operating procedure for diesel pumping.

‘Human error’
AWS managing director Jonathan Short told Packaging News: “We accept the findings of the court and recognise that these two spillages were down to simple human error. We regret them both, and took immediate steps to minimise any damage.

“We have now re-evaluated our operating procedures and implemented the necessary changes to ensure that there can and will be no repetition.”

Claire Bentley, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that there was evidence of poor management on site. Both incidents required extensive clean-up measures with the clean-up contractors still visiting the site for more than a month after each incident.’

In mitigation, Jonathan Dunkley said that in August 2009 the site had suffered a devastating fire in which temperatures reached 850 degrees centigrade; yet no diesel was lost from the mechanical infrastructure.

He said that this was testament to the measures the company had taken since the second spill.

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