Companies face full cost Liability for Environmental Damage

Companies face full cost Liability for Environmental Damage Speaking before the vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, South East MEP Peter Skinner, the European Parliaments Health and Safety Rapporteur said, "We want to end the days when companies can cause profound environmental damage and walk away leaving the taxpayer to foot the repair bill." "We are talking about toxic chemicals dumped in barrels destroying a river with the huge clean up costs paid out of the public purse. Or waste buried underground in brownfield sites and contaminating the drinking water supply in a local area." "Every regional authority across the UK can list a catalogue of environmental disasters, where the polluter has just walked away and the costs of restoration have come out of public finances." "The evidence speaks for itself. Just outside Glasgow, large quantities of industrial waste were dumped into a brown field site near Halfway Cambuslang and covered over. Since then houses have been built on the site and toxic gas is now rising up though the floorboards as the waste decomposes." "The Wheal Jane mine, an abandoned tin mine in Cornwall, was left filled with water and millions of gallons of highly acidic and metal-laden effluent, which flowed into local rivers and produced a spectacular pollution incident in the Fal Estuary. The costs of treating the pollution discharges, met by the UK taxpayer, were put at £3.5 million." "In Somerton, Somerset, several waste drums of lindane and mercury seed dressings were emptied into a drain on a disused seed mill which was in the process of being demolished. The resulting pollution of the Mill Stream -running into the River Cary - killed fish and river life and turned the water pink! Over £500,000 of public money was spent on the clean-up operation." "The European Commission estimates that some 300,000 sites in the Community are definitely or potentially contaminated and the clean-up costs are estimated at between 55 and 106 billion Euro." Skinner added, "We want to make sure that the restoration of contaminated sites is paid for by the company that caused the damage." "With these new laws we are enforcing the polluter pays principle and putting the right financial incentives in place so that companies will take the necessary precautions to minimise the risk of environmental accidents." On the need to look at ways of making sure that companies set aside the money to pay for potential environmental damage, Skinner added, "There is no point holding a company liable for environmental damage if they are unable to pay. We are looking at a cocktail of possible ways - insurance, financial securities including bonds, levies and a possible superfund - to ensure that companies have the financial resources put aside to pay for environmental damage." On the exemption for permit holders from liability, Skinner added, "A permit is not a licence to pollute. We want to amend the permit holder's exemption from liability so that mitigating circumstances can be taken into account. These laws were never intended to give permit holders a blank cheque to pollute without paying." Environmental Liability - Background Note The current rules Under current UK law you can be taken to court and fined for damaged done to the environment. But you are not liable for the full costs of repair. The new rules The European Commission has brought forward draft EU laws establishing a new principle of strict liability which will ensure that companies will have to pay the full costs of remedying serious environmental damage to land, water and biodiversity. MEPs want to strengthen the draft proposals by: introducing mandatory financial security - through insurance, bonds,superfunds etc - to ensure that companies put aside the money to pay for potential environmental damage. Loosening the block exemption for permit holders so that mitigating factors can be taken into account. What next? The proposals must be agreed by EU Governments before becoming law. But MEPs have equal power with EU Governments in drafting this legislation, they can reject the whole proposal if they do not agree with the final text. Peter Skinner MEP e-mail to email Peter Skinner TS