A statement yesterday, January 20, from the Environment Agency said the company was prosecuted after the “major fire” at the site in 2014 led to the pollution of a local river, the temporary closure of a sewage treatment works and smoke affecting homes 20 miles away in Sheffield. Hazlewood is about 12 miles west of Barnsley.
According to the Environment Agency, following a smaller fire in April 2014, “concerns were expressed to the company by the Environment Agency about its management of the incident and its fire prevention and incident response plans”.
This included “subsequently demanding” that changes and improvements be made to bring the site into compliance with the conditions of its environmental permit. This included the requirement to produce a detailed incident management plan and limit the size of stock piles of waste wood, which were found to be in excess of the maximum limits allowed.
“Despite this, in June 2014 a second large fire occurred lasting 13 days. It was caused by self-combustion of the waste wood stockpiles. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service described it as its largest resource commitment for over 11 years, using an average of 45 personnel at any one time, at a cost of over £500,000,” the statement added.
The £5 million Hazlehead site – one of four the company operates across the UK – shreds up to 150,000 tonnes of waste wood each year to remove contaminants, for the purpose of creating a biomass fuel for EON’s biomass energy plant at Blackburn Meadows, Sheffield.
Delay
In a statement, the Environment Agency said: “Plevin’s systems for addressing the known risk of a self-heating combustion on site were wholly inadequate. It received an unmistakeable warning with the fire that occurred in April 2014. The defendant did not act on that warning before the second fire sufficiently or at all. Its response to the second fire was to look to the Fire Service and the Environment Agency for direction, initiative and resources. After the second fire it failed to address the polluted waters sitting in its lagoons and it failed to reduce its stack sizes as required.”
The Agency added: “Failure to comply with the legal requirements of an environmental permit is a serious offence that can damage the environment, undermine those who adhere to the rules and cause misery for local communities and we welcome the sentence handed down.”
In its statement, the Agency referenced comments made by Plevin’s QC, Andrew Thomas who said that the company’s culpability for the incidents should not be determined by using hindsight, and that he heavily criticised the Environment Agency for the delay in bringing the prosecution.
‘Deep regret’
In a statement given to letsrecycle.com, Jamie Plevin, Managing Director of Plevin, said: “The company deeply regrets the incident and is extremely sorry for the impact it had on the Environment Agency, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and local residents and businesses. We cannot thank the people involved at the time of the incident enough, and the company have learned from the very distressing situation that resulted.
“The incident took place nearly 6 years ago and since then we have made significant changes to operations and procedures to prevent any such incident happening in the future.”
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