Stanlow refinery breached its pollution permit 58 times in 2023 and 2024, regulator's reports show

The reports use two counts. Permitted levels for chemical releases were exceeded hundreds of times over 2023 and 2024 ^[2], and from those the regulator determined that EET Fuels broke its permit conditions 58 times ^[3]. Spread across the two years, that is about one breach every 13 days ^[21]. The permit lets the site discharge controlled amounts of oil and chemicals, provided it works to limit pollution and harm to people ^[9]. An exceedance is a reading above one of those agreed limits. The thing these reports, as the BBC describes them, don't tell you is the denominator: how many readings were taken, and so what share of them broke a limit.

The multiples measure something else. Sulphur dioxide was released into the air at seven times its permitted level, cyanide into the River Gowy at more than eight times, and oil at more than thirteen times the allowed level ^[14]. A multiple says how far one release went over its limit. The only incident in the BBC's account with a mass attached is the September 2024 spill ^[4], which averaged more than 27 kilograms of oil an hour ^[22].

The regulator and the company describe the July 2023 leak differently. The agency's report said further investigations indicated the oil had contaminated groundwater supplies ^[26]. EET Fuels told the BBC the oil lost was on a "low scale" and "was strictly localised to two boreholes, all well within the Stanlow site itself" ^[25].

The estuary at the end of these streams is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a breeding ground for rare birds ^[11]. "Species like dunlin, blacktail, godwit and red shank will travel all around the world to feed and roost in the land around the River Mersey," said Charlotte Harris, chief executive of Cheshire Wildlife Trust ^[12]. The evidence of harm to those birds so far is presence and expectation. Natural England sat on the emergency team convened with the EA, port authorities and the Fisheries Authority ^[16]. It said in one meeting: "What has gone in there is going to have some impact on the vegetation and salt marsh and there is probably still a risk of ingestion by birds." ^[17] Drone footage showed wading birds, including red-listed dunlin, in the area ^[19].

Stanlow is one of four refineries left in the UK and processes 10 million tonnes of crude oil a year ^[8]. EET Fuels bought it from Shell in 2011 for 842 million pounds ^[20]. I think the documents obtained by SourceMaterial establish recurrence. They describe spills across both years ^[1], including two oil escapes about 14 months apart ^[23], after the 2018 to 2020 period covered by the guilty plea ^[6]. Whether the newer breaches amount to an offence is for the agency's investigation to settle ^[7]. EET Fuels said it "takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously" ^[18].