UK oil refinery broke toxic pollution limits dozens of times, documents reveal — SkimNews
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- EET Fuels' Stanlow refinery breached its environmental permit 58 times across 2023 and 2024, with toxic chemicals released into the Mersey Estuary and connected waterways including Thornton Brook and the River Gowy
- Environment Agency reports documented cyanide exceeding permitted levels by more than eightfold in the Gowy, sulphur dioxide at seven times permitted levels in the air, and oil at more than 13 times allowed levels
- A spill on 12 September 2024 released over a tonne of oil into Thornton Brook, spreading more than a mile down the river to the Mersey Estuary, but EET Fuels took nearly two weeks to estimate the volume despite regulations requiring this within 24 hours
- EET Fuels pleaded guilty this year to 12 charges of breaching environmental law from 2018–2020 and is due to be sentenced next month, with campaigners noting the earlier case took up to eight years to reach the courts
- Natural England dropped its own investigation into the 2024 spill after internal emails concluded that the refinery's permit set no quantity limits on how much oil could be released
- The Mersey Estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest home to endangered species including dolphins, Atlantic salmon, and the critically endangered European eel, with cockle beds closed for five weeks after the 2024 spill
- EET Fuels said it has invested over £24 million in wastewater infrastructure and improved its Environment Agency compliance rating from F in 2023 to E in 2024
Why it matters: With sentencing pending for earlier violations and a fresh Environment Agency criminal investigation underway, EET Fuels faces escalating legal risk at a refinery producing 18% of UK road transport fuel. The case exposes a structural loophole: Natural England's internal emails show it dropped its 2024 probe because the permit itself set no quantity limits on oil release, meaning the regulator's main enforcement tool may be toothless at one of only four remaining UK refineries.
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