SEPA probes Grangemouth ‘rotten eggs’ fumes over weekend

Environment protection body SEPA has fielded a “significant” number of complaints from Grangemouth about a “rotten eggs” smell from an Ineos plant in Grangemouth.
Recent pollution problems in Grangemouth have included this flare-up at an Ineos plant last weekend.Recent pollution problems in Grangemouth have included this flare-up at an Ineos plant last weekend.
Recent pollution problems in Grangemouth have included this flare-up at an Ineos plant last weekend.

The issue appears to have been dealt with, but freelance broadcast journalist Paul Smith earlier captured on video a dense cloud of fumes escaping from a chimney at the plant.

Paul said: “The smell seems to have drifted over Falkirk, where some people were complaining of the same rotten eggs smell”.

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A SEPA team visited the area yesterday and found the most like source of the smell, and attendant noise, was the Petroineos refinery.

They were told the odours were due to an issue with the sulphur units, and advised the firm to update the community as possible.

It’s understood an update may be provided on social media later this afternoon, and SEPA were also expected to be back at the site today.

On a separate issue, Ineos said on its Twitter feed on Friday: “Due to a short-term operational issue at one of the off-shore installations connected to the Forties Pipeline, we will be managing periods of controlled elevated flaring at the INEOS FPS Kinneil Terminal” (in Miller Road, Grangemouth)”.

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Recent flare-ups at Ineos sites in Grangemouth have seen black clouds of fumes drifting across the town, in incidents which appear to have taken most of a day or overnight to correct.

In an unrelated incident on the other side of the Forth local residents told how their homes “vibrated” after the latest period of unplanned flaring at the Mossmorran chemical facility.

Residents in Cowdenbeath said their door frames “shook” on Friday morning as a bright orange flame filled the sky over Fife, and people in Edinburgh able to spot the flare from across the Forth.

It comes just weeks after the plant - which has been previously warned over flaring activity by industry regulators - sent a plume of black smoke billowing over parts of Fife for six days.