The facts
Documents shared with the BBC suggest that Stanlow oil refinery, operated by EET Fuels, spilled pollution into local rivers and the Mersey Estuary on dozens of occasions in 2023 and 2024. EET Fuels previously pleaded guilty to 12 charges of breaching environmental law between 2018 and 2020. The newly obtained documents describe further breaches, with toxic chemicals and oil reportedly spilled into waterways and groundwater. The Environment Agency (EA) is investigating these incidents. Reports indicate that permitted levels for chemical releases were exceeded hundreds of times in 2023 and 2024, with the EA determining that EET Fuels broke its permit conditions 58 times over the two-year period. Spills included cyanide, benzene, and heavy oils into the air and local waterways, including the River Gowy, which connects to the Mersey Estuary, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In one incident in July 2023, rainwater containing oil leaked from the site, which the EA classified as "significant," leading to local complaints about smell and groundwater contamination. In September 2024, over a tonne of oil was released into Thornton Brook and spread to the Mersey Estuary. EET Fuels stated that historical permit exceedances do not represent the current operational status and that they have invested over £24 million in wastewater infrastructure. The EA has launched a separate criminal investigation into the September 2024 incident.
Our take
EET Fuels, the cunts operating Stanlow refinery, have perfected a new form of accounting: environmental crime as a recurring quarterly expense. They already copped a guilty plea for 12 breaches. Now we learn the greedy bastards treated that conviction as a fucking starting pistol, racking up 58 fresh permit violations in just two years. That’s not an operational hiccup; that’s a corporate ethos. Their business plan is a simple two-step: 1) Make fuel. 2) Piss poison into every nearby water source until someone makes a sad face.
Their toxic portfolio is impressively diverse. Cyanide for the fish. Benzene for the kids. Heavy oils for that glossy, apocalyptic sheen on the River Gowy. They didn't just spill near a Site of Special Scientific Interest; they used it as a mixing bowl for their chemical cocktail. The July 2023 'significant' leak of oily rainwater was so pungent and contaminating it forced locals to complain. But these arrogant pricks don't do customer service; they do ecological vandalism. So by September 2024, they'd levelled up to dumping over a fucking tonne of oil into Thornton Brook, a slick, greasy middle finger that floated all the way into the Mersey Estuary. The Environment Agency is now running a separate criminal investigation just for that one masterpiece. Imagine needing a dedicated task force for your annual corporate shitting of the bed.
And here comes the comedy: their defence. These grifting dickheads claim the hundreds of permit exceedances are 'historical' and don't reflect current operations, a statement so divorced from reality it belongs in a clown college dissertation. The breaches are from 2023 and 2024, you absolute frauds. That’s the current operational status! It’s like a serial arsonist insisting last week's fires are 'historical' because he bought a new hose. Their £24 million 'investment' in wastewater infrastructure is the punchline. What did it buy? A slightly fancier pipe to pump the same cyanide and benzene into the same river? A golden plaque that says 'We Spent The Money' bolted to a leaking tank? It’s a vanity project for press releases, a financial fig leaf over a gaping, oozing wound of institutional negligence.
The sheer, staggering scale of their contempt is the joke. Fifty-eight permit breaks in two years. That’s more than one every two weeks. It’s a part-time job for someone called 'The Leak.' This isn't a company that occasionally fucks up; it's a factory where fucking up is the primary product, packaged in barrels of oil and clouds of benzene. Their statement is the coward's haiku: deny, deflect, and mention a big number you spent. It’s the verbal equivalent of using a £24 million banknote to wipe up a tonne of oil, then handing the soggy, toxic wad to the public and calling it a solution. They are not a fuel supplier; they are a pollution delivery service with a PR department built on lies and a operational department built on leaks. The only infrastructure they truly need is a single, giant toilet to flush their entire worthless enterprise down.
