The true cost of pollution incidents

Mike Jenkins Project Manager – Environment Agency

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

2001 2005 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Number of Serious and Significant Pollution Incidents 2000 – 2012

1%

4% 5%

11%

13%

16% 22%

28%

Transport

Domestic and residential

Industry

Other

Sewage and water industry Agriculture

Source not identified

Waste management facilities

Sources of Pollution Incidents 2012

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Waste Management Facilities’ Pollution Incidents 2008 - 2012

Agriculture Pollution Incidents 2008 - 2012

Improving Pollution Prevention Programme

•  Run between 2012 to 2014

•  10 projects all aiming to reduce the number or severity of pollution incidents

•  Targeting waste, agriculture, highways, and construction and working with a number of partners.

Direct Financial Costs •  Property damage •  Recharge costs •  Penal damages

Impact on Environment •  Damage to aquatic environment •  Damage to fish •  Air quality damage

Impact on Society •  Recreation •  Human health •  Restrictions on events

Type of Cost Cost

Polluter’s Recharge Cost £192k

Fire & Rescue Incident Response £107k

Penal Damages £40k

Awarded Legal Costs £15k

Local Authority Incident Response £8k

Public Health England Incident Response £2k

Damage to Recreational Angling £310k

Impact on Golf Club £13k

Fish Kill £47k

Loss of Spend on Angling Equipment £27k

Impact on Recreation £9k

Impact of Exposure to Smoke £112k

Loss of production at neighbouring site £500k

Total £1.4m

Type of Cost Cost

Polluter’s Recharge Cost £2k

Polluter’s Cleanup Costs £1.2m

Penal Damages £15k

Awarded Legal Costs £1.5k

Total £1.22m

The true cost of pollution incidents

The true cost of pollution incidents •  Using the report we’ll be able to:

- Develop typical costs for different types of incidents - Improve the way we record information, so that costs can be accurately calculated - Make decisions on continuing incident response, during a pollution incident; and - Demonstrate the real cost of an incident to society – for example to a court.

Demonstrating the full range of costs to industry of a pollution incident, can be a powerful and persuasive tool for our officers to use, encouraging industry to invest in improving environmental performance. Justification for further work…

Fire and Rescue Services Partnership

Location of Environmental Protection Units

Thank you Questions…