Agency halts recycled fuel trials at Lafarge Cement works

The Agency investigation was prompted by the company's announcement that “minor technical irregularities” had been discovered in cement produced at the Wiltshire facility.

” We have learned the operational lessons of this affair and the irregularities will not reoccur.“
– Jean-Francois Sautin, Lafarge
The Westbury Works had been running trials using recycled liquid fuel to replace fossil fuels in its kiln, but the Agency said the trial would not be allowed to start until the investigation was complete “and confidence fully restored”.

Recycled liquid fuel is a high-grade blended fuel made from waste materials used in making products including screen wash, paint, printing ink and brush cleaners.

Although the Agency does not have any regulatory control over the quality of cement products, it said that because of problems with the data handling within the firm's cement process, it had concerns about the company's environmental monitoring with regard to the fuel trials.

“We are extremely concerned,” said Tony Owen, area manager for the Agency, “and have launched a thorough investigation to see if there are any implications for the environmental monitoring data.”

He said at this stage there was no evidence to suggest problems with environmental data at the company, but explained that the Agency was carrying out a “thorough check to be absolutely certain”.

Investigations
The Agency is investigating management controls “from top to bottom” within the company, investigating environmental records and refusing to allow the trial of recycled liquid fuel to go ahead while investigations are carried out. The investigation is expected to last about a month.

Lafarge Cement called the problems with its cement “minor technical irregularities”, and stated that the irregularities affect a “small amount of cement used in various construction projects in the South West of England”. The problems “can potentially cause some superficial cracking in buildings and other structures”, Lafarge explained.

Individuals involved in the problems at Westbury “no longer work for Lafarge”, the company added.

Lafarge's managing director, Jean-Francois Sautin, said: “We have learned the operational lessons of this affair and the irregularities will not reoccur.”