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ICI Runcorn Site takes Pride in its 1998 Environmental PerformanceICI’s Runcorn Site has this week published its 1998 environmental performance data and is confident it is making good progress and having no impact on the local community. The site reported a year of continuous improvement and is taking pride in its achievements.Commented Dr Ian Taylor, Environment Manager for Runcorn Site: "We should be proud, although not complacent, of the progress that has been made during 1998 in further improving our environmental performance. "We have a very rigorous environmental monitoring programme, and from tens of thousands of measures taken, we are confident that we are having no impact on people or the environment in and around our site." "Safety, health and the environment is a top priority for all employees and we are committed to achieving further improvements. This commitment by our workforce, together with a continued multi-million pound investment programme which includes our £50m Environmental Improvement Project, will enable us to drive further improvements year-on-year." Summary of key results for 1998: *Levels of two key substances in the air, vinyl chloride and ethylene dichloride, were 1000th of the levels set by the government's Health & Safety Executive for safeguarding the workforce, and almost undetectable even with sophisticated monitoring devices. * The amount of mercury in the air was cut dramatically as a result of major investments on the site. Levels are now just one twentieth of the World Health Organisation's acceptable concentration. * Regular monitoring at Sutton Weir - where the Weston Canal meets the River Weaver - showed that emissions to local waterways were well within the limits set by law - the European Environmental Quality Standards. * Authorised releases of mercury and halogenated hydrocarbons into the Weston Canal have dropped by more than 90% in the last 10 years. * The number of incidents of non-compliance with Environment Agency operating conditions fell by more than half last year to 59. The failures did not have any significant environmental impact and the Agency did not take any enforcement action. ICI Runcorn Site's target is to achieve 100 per cent compliance, and major progress is being made towards achieving this. Editor's notes: Based in Runcorn, ICI’s Chlor-Chemicals Business is one of the world’s largest producers of chlorine and chlorine derivatives, with around 2,500 employees worldwide. |
