last updated 15th December 05
By 4ecotips

But no effect on petrol prices

The fire at Hemel Hempstead's, Buncefield Depot released hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Winds carried it away across large areas of south and south east England and much of it is expected to reach Holland, France and Spain.

Green Party principal speaker, Keith Taylor, was quick to point out "What if is had been a nuclear accident?"

"Perhaps the most important lesson we should learn from this event is that even in the best regulated industries accidents on this scale can and do happen. Had this happened at a nuclear plant, that huge black cloud could well have been radioactive. The Chernobyl accident legacy has left 3m children in several countries still receiving medical treatment. Surely, when less damaging energy solutions are available, we should be developing them?"

"It is still too early to tell what the long term impacts of this event will be, but it seems certain that the risk to the surrounding environment is immense."

"The clearly visible airborne pollution may have catastrophic effects on
crops - carbon and kerosene residue could make much agricultural produce unusable. This will also have an effect on local dairy produce."

"Figures stated that firemen pumped 32000 litres of water a minute onto the raging flames. The possible impacts of this are hard to quantify; both ground and surface water may well be heavily contaminated."

"The sheer volume of water used renders any attempt to control what will most likely be toxic run off impossible. When, as it will, it begins to rain, attempts to contain the pollution will become even more difficult."

Taylot went on: "This could be devestating for surrounding rivers and consequently wild life. The Green Party have requested that Environmental Health Officers monitor the River Ver for signs of contamination."

"The thick black plumes of acrid smoke enveloping the area surrounding Buncefield should act as a visual reminder of what we are doing to the world's atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels."

However, prices for four star (LRP), unleaded and diesel all remained flat over the weekend despite the huge fires. According to fuel price monitoring website www.petrolprices.com , prices actually fell marginally on Sunday, with the average price of unleaded down 0.1p/litre to 87.60p and Diesel down 0.3p/litre to 91.99p.

Commenting on the disaster, Paul Maunders, co-founder of PetrolPrices.com said, "The oil industry is incredibly resilient. They have plans in place to deal with supply problems like this. The price statistics from www.petrolprices.com today would confirm that their plans are working and that the disruption has been minimal."

The advice from the industry is for motorists to buy petrol when they normally would and not to panic buy. Nick Vandervell, from the UK Petroleum Industry Association said, "Since Buncefield only accounted for around 5% of total distribution capacity, it is the act of panic buying itself which is most likely to cause shortages, and not supply problems from the depots."