Record number of firms named by watchdog
By Rob Edwards

A record number of rule-breaking, stinking, pollution-spewing industrial plants across the country are named and shamed by the government's official green watchdog this weekend.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is outing 36 sites from Shetland to the Borders as poor pollution performers in 2008.

They include sites run by BP, Lafarge, Marine Harvest, INEOS, and eight local authorities, as well as 12 landfill dumps and nine food-industry facilities.

It is the highest number of sites ever highlighted by Sepa, and it means the agency itself has just failed to meet its target to clean up industrial plants. Eight sites have flunked pollution assessments two years running and six have failed three years running.

Companies and councils have frequently breached legal permits, with equipment breakdowns, process failures, leaks, spills and bad smells. Some have been served legal enforcement notices, and others taken to court.

Four of the offenders are in Grangemouth, three in Glasgow and three in Aberdeen. In Angus there is a trio of smelly and polluting meat factories and in Peterhead an offending oil-waste plant and fish processor.

BP is named for failing to report and investigate incidents at the Sullom Voe oil terminal in Shetland. The company "cannot demonstrate a good knowledge of permit requirements", says Sepa.

A BP spokeswoman said: "We have been in discussion with Sepa and will continue to have an ongoing dialogue with them."

The cement works near Dunbar in East Lothian run by the French company, Lafarge, failed for the second year running because of an "offensive odour outside the installation boundary". This is embarrassing for a company which prides itself on its conservation partnership with the international environmental group WWF, aimed at cutting pollution.

"We are disappointed," said Lafarge Cement UK's environment manager, Dave Shenton. He pointed out the plant's unauthorised emissions had been cut to zero over the last nine months and was confident that the Dunbar works would pass Sepa's assessment in 2009.

The Norwegian fish farming firm Marine Harvest has also formed an environmental partnership with WWF in Norway. But its fish processing plant in Fort William suffered a "deterioration of performance" in 2008 due to "changes to the company management structure", says Sepa.

Marine Harvest's technical manager Dougie Hunter, was "disappointed" by the assessment which was partly due to "intermittent odour issues".

But he added: "The situation has greatly improved."

The Grangemouth oil refinery run by INEOS has failed Sepa's pollution test three years running. In 2008 there were "significant incidents" when the plant was restarted after a strike.

"As a result of our investigations into these incidents our operating procedures have been amended to prevent a reoccurrence," said a spokesman for INEOS.

Another site that has failed Sepa assessments for the last three years is the carbon-fibre manufacturing plant run by the German company SGL at Muir of Ord in Ross-shire, which failed to stick within emission limits.

SGL's site director, Clemens Hauswirth, said environmental performance had improved significantly. "We have invested around £3 million within the last year in state-of-the-art equipment," he said.

Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, accused companies of ignoring their public image, and called for Sepa to be given powers to get tough with offenders.

"Warning letters and public shaming run like water off a duck's back," he said.

Publishing the assessments is "important not only for transparency, but also to encourage improvement", according to Sepa. Offending sites "should now expect increased regulatory activity, including additional inspections".