Kerosene leak prompts questions on safety (From Western Telegraph)

Kerosene leak prompts questions on safety

THE pressure group Safe Haven has questioned the safety record of a company which will be involved in the running of an LNG terminal at Waterston.

This follows a leak of 500 tonnes of jet kerosene from a storage tank at the Petroplus site.

The company discovered tank 115 was leaking during routine monitoring last Tuesday and a stock check revealed the full extent.

Oil had contaminated Hazelbeach stream, which enters the Milford Haven Waterway.

The Environment Agency has served a suspension notice on Petroplus preventing the tank from being used for chemical storage, until measures have been taken to prevent further leakage.

Safe Haven spokesman Gordon Main said: "If the company cannot store the relatively stable liquid - kerosene - safely, then are they really to be trusted with the far more dangerous LNG?

"It's not as though this is an isolated incident. Exactly the same tank leaked in 2001. It looks as though we are witnessing an accident ridden safety culture where lessons are not learned from past mistakes. Kerosene stinks and kills everything in its path, but it is not realistically going to threaten hundreds of human lives. An LNG leak will."

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "At present the environmental impact appears to be limited to the stream. It is causing a localised visual and odour impact in the vicinity of the stream."

But he added that measures were in place to minimise any impact. A clean-up has been carried out and the county council has put up signs warning the public that the beach is contaminated.

A full investigation is being carried out into the cause and what steps to take to prevent a recurrence.

A Petroplus spokesman said: "The tank had a brand new floor in 2002, following the initial leakage in 2001. There is no way that the tank should have leaked like this. We are at a complete loss at this stage, as to the cause.

"It appears the kerosene has leaked through a crack in the rock and is seeping down to the foreshore at Hazelbeach and the stream. We have expert contractors working around the clock with the Environment Agency putting in interception systems to capture the fuel coming down, hopefully preventing it from reaching the beach."

Waterston town councillor, Ken Edwards, said: "This is the second incident in two years. I've contacted Petroplus and they are mystified as to how this could have happened.

"They have assured me that they will take all possible steps to stop another leak."