Over 700 reports of flaring at plant in three days

MORE than 700 reports have been made to the Scottish Envionment Protection Agency (Sepa) over unscheduled flaring at Mossmorran, Fife.

The Exxonmobil Chemical Ethylene Plant started elevated flaring at around 3.30am on Sunday, which lasted until Tuesday afternoon.

Sepa officers remained in contact with the plant and continued to collect data and evidence during the flaring.

Sepa’s four remote monitoring points around the site, at Lochgelly, Auchtertool, Donibristle and Little Raith, continue to capture data, which have shown there was no breach of air quality standards.

Monitors continue to demonstrate no breach of air quality standards.

Chris Dailly, of Sepa, said: “While we are pleased the site has now returned to normal operations and is no longer flaring, we remain frustrated by the frequency of flaring and the flow of information from the operator.

“While we await a full, detailed report from the operator on the cause of the latest flaring incident, the operator has indicated a compressor fault.

“The evidence we are gathering will enable us to determine whether there has been a breach of the site’s permit conditions and what our next steps should be in line with our published enforcement policy.

“We are clear on our expectations of Exxonmobil Chemical Limited, including requiring the installation of noisereducing flare tips followed by the installation of ground flares.

“What we need now is for Exxonmobil to step up and recognise the depth of community anger and make real progress in making flaring the exception rather than the routine – and we will employ all available measures to ensure they do so.”