Polluters 'named and shamed' by agency
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• by Karen Mlles
A handful of transport companies are facing public embarrassment this week after being highlighted by the Environment Agency for their illegal polluting misdemeanors.
Puritan Maid, P&O Roadtanks, Econofreight Heavy Transport and truck dealer Lex Commercials are among those included in the agency's "hall of shame"—a list of the worst corporate polluters found guilty and fined in the English and Welsh courts during 1998.
The transport operations of a number of companies in other industry sectors were also highlighted in the agency's first attempt to embarrass polluting law-breakers. Puritan Maid's £10,000 fine for leaking more than 1,000 litres of detergent into Cove Brook, killing 3,000 fish, is highlighted, along with P&O Roadtanks' 12,000 fine for molten phthalic anhydride leaked from a tanker at a site in Ellesmere Port. Econofreight is listed for being responsible for leaking 11,000 litres of oil into a stream near Bristol after moving a heavy electricity transformer. The company was fined £5,000 for allowing the spillage, which caused a 2km slick.
And Lex Commercials' Charnwood dealership faced one of the largest fines in the sector£14,000—for a leaking underground fuel tank which resulted in fuel entering a nearby river. A spokesman for Lex says: As soon as we realised what had happened we rectified the problem and checked all similar tanks." The Foden and Renault dealership has since been sold.
The agency's operations director Archie Robertson says: "Transport companies must understand they have a responsibility to protect the environment and need to be publicly held to account. The companies included in our tall of shame" have let down the public, the environment and their industry."