UK plant to burn Syrian chemical weapons

Workers in a chemical plant in the northwest are preparing to burn 150 tonnes of potentially lethal Syrian chemical weapons despite local protests.

Veolia, the French-owned waste management company, has agreed to take on the shipment at Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool, despite concerns that disposing of the waste could have a harmful effect on a school less than two miles away.

The company says the chemicals it is burning are no different to those commonly used in the pharmaceuticals industry, and could not become lethal unless mixed with other chemicals that are being sent elsewhere.

Veolia is one of just two companies involved in the process - the other being Ekokem of Finland - and is the only one doing so in Britain.

The "precursor-B" chemicals would have formed part of "V-series" nerve agents. These are thick, viscous liquids that stick to victims' clothes causing convulsions, asphyxiation and eventual death.

Veolia refuses to say how much it is being paid to dispose of the sensitive material, but says it is part of a contract over several years with the Ministry of Defence. While this shipment is only a fraction of the 100,000 tonnes that pass through the plant each year, it is by far the most controversial.

Hayden Kibble, who lives in the area, has organised a petition against the contract, which has attracted hundreds of signatures.

Mr Kibble said: "We will not allow our area to be used as a toxic dumping ground at the cost of our health and safety, and the health and safety of our children for generations to come."

His views are shared in the community. Darren Brooks used to work for Cabot Carbon, a nearby factory which has since shut down. He told the Financial Times: "It's disgusting. We had to cope with hundreds of people losing their jobs when the factories shut down, now they send us the waste they don't want to burn on our back doorstep."

David Lusher, executive director of Veolia Environmental Waste, said the procedure was routine - the same chemicals are, by coincidence, a byproduct of making Teflon coating for pans. He added that he was "proud" to play a part in the effort to rid Syria of chemical weapons.

Mr Lusher said: "Our workers . . . are proud, as we are, to play our very small role in supporting the MoD and the British government in getting these materials out of harm's way."

He also said there was "no heightened risk" compared with the plant's normal operations. "We have an unblemished record on this site over years; and years and years of first-class environmental performance and first-class health and safety performance. There is nothing this contract will bring that will challenge any of those factors."

The process should not produce any toxic chemical emissions, but it does have an environmental impact. It involves feeding barrels of liquids and saltlike substances into a fire that burns at 1,150 degrees Celsius and produces tonnes of slag destined for landfill, plus water and carbon dioxide. Just cooling an hour's worth of material uses up 200 cubic metres of water, 70 cubic metres of which becomes waste.

The company's reassurances have nullified initial opposition from Andrew Miller, the local Labour MP, who said: "I am satisfied from both government and the company that the plant has the capacity to do this safely. This is employing highly skilled local people who are involved in ridding the world of chemicals that have unpleasant uses."

Although the materials may be commonplace for the plant, the scrutiny that comes with them is not. For every day of the estimated four weeks that it will take to burn the chemicals, officials from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will be on hand to watch the process take place.

Mr Lusher said the company had no plans to process any more such materials when that month is over. But that will have been enough to give this industrial port a central role in one of big events in the long and bloody Syrian civil war.

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