24/02/2005 - On 24 February
2005, the Environment Agency updated the
members of the Rugby Cement Community Forum
on a number of issues concerning the operation
of the site and our ongoing work to ensure
the plant does not impact on the environment
and human health.
Dr David Hudson, of the Environment Agency,
informed the Community Forum of a meeting
in early January 2005 that our Director
of Operations, Dr Paul Leinster, requested
with the Directors of RMC. At that meeting,
Dr Leinster emphasised the need for Rugby
Cement to:
Improve their understanding of the regulatory
regime
Ensure adequate weight is given to resolving
environmental problems
React promptly to complaints from local
residents
Following the meeting Rugby Limited sent
us a work plan to deliver the improvements
and the company presented this to Forum.
We will review its progress in meeting the
work plan toward the end of March 2005 when,
if its performance is satisfactory, we will
consider allowing the trial use of tyres
as a partial substitute fuel to begin again.
Dr Hudson then went on to deal with the
principal part of the brief, which concerned
two incidents in 2004.
The first incident, in May 2004, involved
dust being blown over the nearby residential
area of Long Lawford. The incident was due
to Rugby Ltd’s clearing of a blockage of
material in part of the plant. The dust
released affected houses, cars and gardens
and the incident gave rise to 46 telephone
complaints to us.
We informed the forum that we have investigated
the incident thoroughly. This included formal
interviews, under caution, of senior managers
of the company and examining its procedures
in detail.
We have concluded that, at the time the
incident occurred, the company had taken
all reasonable steps to prevent a release
and that there was no breach of any permit
condition. Therefore no formal enforcement
action can be taken.
We recognise that people affected by this
release may be disappointed with this conclusion.
However, we assure local residents that
we have insisted that the company learn
lessons from this incident and modify their
procedures so that the risk of such an incident
occurring again is very low.
The second incident occurred on 21 June
2004. Rugby Ltd reported a failure of part
of the equipment designed to remove particulates
(dust) before the gas passes up the stack.
This led to a release of particulates, for
a short period of time, above those permitted.
The company continued to burn tyres during
the equipment failure, in breach of permit
requirements
Our investigations of this incident also
identified that there was a trend showing
increasing levels of particulates although
they remained within permit levels. This
was of great concern to us and even though
there was no link between the increase in
particulates and the burning of chipped
tyres, we stepped in to protect the environment
and public.
On 1 July 2004 we issued Rugby Ltd with
an Enforcement Notice, requiring it to stop
the tyre trial immediately and address our
concerns about the trend of increasing emissions
of particulates.
We have undertaken a detailed investigation
of the breach of permit conditions, involving
formal interviews, under caution, of the
company’s senior management. We have concluded,
having regard to our publicly available
Enforcement and Prosecution Policy, that
the protective response of the Enforcement
Notice is sufficient in this case.
We also briefed Forum members on our analysis
of the complaints log, which led to the
conclusion that our record of complaints
received relating to Rugby Cement and entered
onto our recording database do not tally
with the complaints submitted to Rugby Borough
Council and forwarded to us. We have been
working with Rugby Borough Council and the
company to resolve this.
We are committed to ensuring that all complaints
received regarding Rugby Ltd’s impact on
people or the environment are promptly and
properly responded to. To enable us to make
a prompt response, we ask that complaints
are made through our 24 hour a day seven
days a week incident hotline 0800 807060.
We have asked the Forum to review all complaints
at future Forum meetings to ensure that
all relevant complaints have been captured
by our system and, where appropriate, raised
with the company.
