By Grant Smith

DUNDEE’S INCINERATOR breached emission limits for toxic and potentially cancer-causing chemicals last year, it has emerged.

The Baldovie plant was found to be letting too many dioxins and furans into the air in June and was served with an enforcement notice by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

According to SEPA, there was “considerable effort” made to resolve the problem and air samples taken later were satisfactory.

Tests on topsoil in the Baldovie area found traces of dioxins and furans in some places, but at low enough levels not to give the agency cause for concern.

However, the breach was serious enough for the incinerator to fail its 2008 operator performance assessment, a check carried out by SEPA to see how its anti-pollution measures were working.

Results of all the assessments carried out in Scotland have just been released.

Plant operator DERL said last night that there had been a “blip” which was successfully sorted with a planned boiler overhaul, and that emissions have shrunk to below a third of stringent new European limits.

Dioxins are a group of chemicals known to increase the likelihood of cancer. They are most commonly produced by waste incinerators and chemical and fertiliser plants, although they can also occur naturally in forest fires.

According to the UN’s World Health Organisation, “In terms of dioxin release into the environment, waste incinerators are often the worst culprits, due to incomplete burning.”

Dioxins are also suspected of affecting reproductive health, lowering sperm counts, causing behavioural problems and increasing the incidence of diabetes.

They can also have an impact on unborn children and infants, as they can be passed through the placenta or carried in breast milk.

Furans are also an unwanted by-product of combustion processes and can cause a similar range of health problems.

However, most human exposure to dioxins and furans comes from eating. Because the chemicals exist in small quantities in air, water and soil they end up present in food. In the UK, only around 2% of people’s exposure to dioxins is reckoned to be due to inhalation, with 98% from food.

Details of the breach at DERL are contained in the latest annual report on operator performance assessments, which looked at how around 400 potentially polluting industrial, commercial and farming sites measured up to their responsibilities to stay within safety limits.

There are 11 sites in the Dundee area but only the incineratorfailed.

SEPA does not say by how much DERL exceeded the regulations but it adds, “Operator co-operated fully and expended considerable effort resolving the issue. This failure is not representative of an otherwise high standard.”

The problem at the waste-to-energy incinerator, which generates electricity by burning thousands of tonnes of rubbish from Dundee and Angus, was reported to SEPA’s east region board.

The DERL plant has been operating for a decade and was built under the private finance initiative.

A DERL spokesman said last night, “In SEPA’s recently published operator performance assessment, which awards five points to each of six categories, we scored either ‘excellent’ (five points) or ‘very good’ (four points) in five of the categories, including a maximum ‘five’ score for knowledge and implementation of our operator licence requirements.

“However, we were automatically awarded only one point for the ‘incidents, complaints and non-compliance events’ category due to an enforcement notice issued by SEPA.

“SEPA noted in the assessment that ‘this low score is not representative of an otherwise high standard.’

“In March 2008, two separate independent emission tests showed contradictory results for dioxin levels on boiler 1, one passing and one failing the stringent new limits for dioxin and furan emissions, which since late 2005 have been set at one-tenth of a nanogramme per cubic metre (0.1ng/m3), one-tenth of previous levels.

“Without any intervention from SEPA, we took boiler one off right away for investigation. At no time were our neighbours or staff put at risk.

“Action to resolve the problem, found to be due to moisture affecting filters, was taken during a major planned shutdown in June 2008.

“We can reassure and reiterate to our neighbours, whom we have kept in touch with these events through our good neighbour forum which SEPA also attend, that this was a short-term issue that was quickly sorted and that the plant complies fully with emissions limits.”

Since the matter was resolved there have been no further breaches, the company said. Two further independent tests, in December and February have shown the boiler “to be operating well with emissions limits.”

SEPA’s figures for its 2008 operator performance assessment show that 91% of the 405 sites it inspected nationwide passed, slightly below the target it set itself.

Among those that passed in the Dundee area are the Michelin tyre factory, the Nynas refinery, Ardownie quarry and the Tealing poultry farm.

Also on the list were Danapack Flexibles, Day International, D. C. Thomson & Co—publisher of The Courier, Halley Stevensons, JT Inglis and Rockwell Solutions.

The 36 sites in Scotland that failed have been told they can expect increased regulatory activity, including extra inspections, this year to ensure they comply with the pollution prevention and control regulations.