Some of these accidents may have serious impacts on individuals who work at the site or live within the area. These accidents can also have a serious impact on the Environment.
COMAH is regulated in Cheshire by the COMAH Competent Authority, which is a partnership between HSE and the Environment Agency. They aim to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances and to limit the consequences to people and the environment of any incidents that do occur and is applicable to any organisation or site which stores, handles or processes large quantities of industrial chemicals of a hazardous nature.
Cheshire has a number of Upper Tier COMAH Sites. The county has the second largest group of COMAH sites in the UK. Cheshire also has 1 nuclear site. The county also has several Major Accident Hazard Pipelines (MAHP) which run through the area, which are owned by MAHP Operators.
Due to stringent regulation, significant reported industrial incidents have a very low likelihood of occurring (as outlined in the National Risk Register) and as such have not occurred within Cheshire.
The first and largest UK industrial explosion occurred at the Buncefield site, Sunday, 11th December 2005. Further explosions followed at the site, which eventually overwhelmed 20 large storage tanks. The vapour cloud explosion was heard up to 125 miles (200 km) away. The explosion measured ‘2.4 on the Richter Scale.’ Many people felt the shockwave after the initial explosion. It was reported that people were woken in South London and as far west as Wokingham, which is approximately 28 miles from the site. There were reports the explosion was heard in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
More than 150 firefighters tackled the blaze for a number of days. Following the explosion and fires at the site, a ‘smoke cloud’ drifted towards Reading and Swindon, which was also seen in the South East of England. Evacuations and school closures were put in place. There was also transportation and business disruptions, within the community. To this day, the community is still in recovery.
As part of industrial planning, Cheshire has an established Industrial Issues Group, which has an agreed term of reference. This group aims to ensure resilience is in place against these industrial risks. This ‘Resilience’ ensures:
All sites/operators have an emergency plan in place
All emergency plans are exercised and tested in line with the regulations they are governed by
We can use the law to ensure actions are taken to make sites safer
The HSE and the Environment Agency will only grant permission for the most hazardous sites to operate if they can demonstrate that they meet a range of safety criteria
The predicted impacts could include:
Risk to life
Damage to property and the local area
Pollution to the local environment and water causes
Damage to the local economy
General advice on what local people and businesses can do in the event of an industrial incident, can be found within numerous resources:
Public Information Zone Safety Letter/Card
Via the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) Portal
Local Authority websites – Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Halton, Warrington
If you live in a Public Information Zone or want to find out more information specific to your area please follow the relevant local authority link below:
Follow advice given out during an incident
Go In: seek shelter immediately.
Stay in: close doors and windows, switch off air conditioning
Tune in: to local media for further advice
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