Essex chemical manufacturing company fined £2.5m

An Essex based chemical manufacturing company has been fined £2.5m following two incidents of uncontrolled releases of highly corrosive acids at its site.  A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency (EA) into the January 2020 release of hydrochloric acid found that pipework had not been installed, maintained and inspected sufficiently which led to several smaller pipe failures before the more serious loss of containment.   An investigation by HSE into the August 2020 release of sulphuric acid identified a lack of inspection and maintenance of the pipework and valves. The leak continued for a further two days due to the inability to operate a manual valve to stop the process.