An international chemical firm has been fined £10,000 after an orange gas cloud leaked from its plant in Hebburn, South Tyneside. Industrial Chemicals Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £5,600 to the Environment Agency, which brought the case, after pleading guilty to two permit breaches.

Paul Harley, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court how on 9 September 2010, the Environment Agency received a report of an orange cloud coming from Industrial Chemical Ltd’s plant in Hebburn.

When officers investigated, they found that the company had been making a batch of ferric sulphate, which is a product used in sewage treatment. A by-product of this process is nitrogen dioxide, which is a red or brown gas. The court heard how this gas is highly toxic if inhaled and is corrosive, causing severe burns.

As a consequence of failing to follow site procedures, and poor controls, too much acid was added to correct one of the batches. This caused a violent reaction that produced excess amounts of nitrogen dioxide, which escaped from the reactor into the air.

Mr. Harley told the court how an orange gas cloud was blown east towards Jarrow but dissipated before any harm could be caused. It was estimated that nearly 194 litres of nitrogen dioxide were released over a period of 30 minutes before the plant was shut down.

Industrial Chemicals Ltd were interviewed under caution, and they accepted that the correct procedures had not been followed, causing the gas leak. The magistrates appreciated the measures the company had put in place since to prevent it from happening again.

Speaking after the case, Peter Duffy, regulatory officer at the Environment Agency said: “This was a potentially serious incident, and had the prevailing wind been in a different direction, it could have been much worse.

“We take our role to protect the environment very seriously. The company failed to follow its site procedures which resulted in the incident. Operating procedures are there to ensure that plants like this don’t cause any harm to the public or the environment. Since the incident we have been working with the company to improve procedures at the site.”

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