Cyanide offences

In a case brought by the UK Environment Agency, an American owned chemical company at Avonmouth has been ordered to appear before the Crown Court after it released up to seventeen times its authorised levels of cyanide into the Severn Estuary.

The Environment Agency issued an enforcement notice on carbon black manufacturer Sevalco in November 2002 following the admitted discovery of discrepancies in the firm's environmental reporting. The firm is authorised by the Environment Agency to discharge low levels of cyanide into the estuary and a nearby surface water channel in its waste waters.

A thorough and detailed investigation revealed a catalogue of inaccurate and falsified figures in the records of cyanide amounts - kept in a 'blue book', higher than permitted levels of cyanide discharged into the estuary and repeated failure to notify the Environment Agency of the situation. False results were also reported to the Agency in the company's monitoring returns.

On the 15th of this month, Magistrates at Bristol heard that between April 1998 and September 2002 records of the amount of cyanide released into the estuary were altered to deliberately conceal that authorised limits were being breached. Although managers in the firm were aware of a problem with high cyanide levels, the firm failed to sort out the situation until a new general manager took charge of operations.

Magistrates said they were absolutely appalled by the findings that individual employees, Sevalco and the parent company were grossly negligent in handling the discharge of cyanide to the environment. Although there was systems in place, the company did not exercise due diligence in ensuring they were complied with. The current manager of the plant was commended.

Due to the serious and aggravating features, dishonesty and total lack of management control the court said it did not have the sentencing powers to deal with the case and referred it to the Crown Court.

'This was a serious and long term problem involving a toxic substance at the Sevalco plant which the company failed to deal with and deliberately concealed,' explained Tim Loveday for the Environment Agency.

'Despite knowing about the high cyanide levels for several years, the management at Sevalco did not inform us and continued to hide the problem with no regard for the impact it could have had on the Severn Estuary.'

'We are reassured that this court recognised the seriousness of this case and has referred the case to a higher court. Honest reporting of release information and breaches of authorisations is a cornerstone of the environmental regulation of major industries, so this case has implications for all industry regulated by the Environment Agency who should be aware that we will not hesitate to prosecute in such cases.'

Sevalco is one of only two carbon black manufacturers in the UK. In 1988, the firm was bought by Columbian Chemicals, part of Phelps Dodge Industries.