MOSSMORRAN UPDATE : 14:30 Tuesday 6 October 2020

Having received reports of elevated flaring at the ExxonMobil Chemical Fife Ethylene Plant shortly after 3:30am on Sunday, SEPA officers remained in contact with the site throughout the period. Specialist scientific and enforcement officers also continued to deploy to record community impacts and gather information, data and evidence.

SEPA’s four remote monitoring points around the site, at Lochgelly, Auchtertool, Donibristle and Little Raith continue to capture data. Monitors continue to demonstrate no breach of air quality standards.

As always SEPA has been in contact with partners in Fife Council and NHS Fife.

Chris Dailly, Head of Environmental Performance at SEPA, said:

“Whilst we are pleased that the site has now returned to normal operations and is no longer flaring, we remain frustrated by the frequency of flaring and the flow of information from the operator. We’ve also clearly heard the impact flaring continues to have on local communities through over 740 reports to us since Sunday.

“Whilst we await a full, detailed report from the operator on the cause of the latest flaring incident, the operator has indicated a compressor fault. The evidence we are gathering will enable us to determine whether there has been a breach of the site’s permit conditions and what our next steps should be in line with our published Enforcement Policy.

“We are clear on our expectations of ExxonMobil Chemical Limited, including requiring the installation of noise reducing flare tips followed by the installation of ground flares. What we need now is for ExxonMobil to step up and recognise the depth of community anger and make real progress in making flaring the exception rather than the routine – and we will employ all available measures to ensure they do so.

“Updates will be available on social media and sepa.org.uk/mossmorran and we urge the public to report community impacts at SEPA.org.uk/report.”