According to the ely center and Tukes, in addition to odor nuisances, numerous other problems have been observed in the company’s operations.
Järvenpää the company that caused the chemical leak has had various disturbances almost every week for years, ely center documents reveal.
The company became public at the beginning of the week, when a chemical leak occurred at its premises, as a result of which two employees were hospitalized.
The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) announced on Thursday that it suspects a work error in the accident and will start investigating the accident in cooperation with the police and other authorities.
An accident at the moment, the company was processing mixed acid waste. Acidic waste was pumped into the wrong reactor, where there had been remnants of salt precipitate.
The acid began to react with the precipitate, causing the evolution of toxic gas and acid fumes. A gaseous leak escaped from the reactor into the production area, exposing workers.
According to Tukes’ preliminary assessment, the pumping of acid waste into the wrong reactor was done by mistake.
Read more: A chemical leak at a company handling hazardous waste in Järvenpää has been contained – two employees hospitalized
Uusimaa Since 2017, about 40 complaints have been made to the Center for Business, Transport and the Environment (ely) about the operations of Kierto Environmental Services Ltd. Most of the reports are about the smell. In addition, flaws have been detected in the company’s operations.
The company is focused on the transportation, disposal and utilization of hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is defined as, for example, asbestos, medical waste or, for example, highly toxic cyanide left over from laboratory waste.
The company’s operations focus mainly on the treatment of process waters of corrosive substances and not on toxic substances.
Residents have complained about the smell emanating from the activities of Kierto Environmental Services in the residential areas of Jampa and Saunakallio. According to the residents, the sour smell sometimes penetrates the interior of the houses even through the drains.
For years During the period, several different causes have been recorded as the source of the odors, based on the reports provided by the company, such as the treatment of turpentine waters, the pumping of oil containers and a malfunction of the wet washing line.
Since 2017, there have been reports of malfunctions fairly regularly several times a year. In some months, there have been several complaints. For example, in April 2021, three reports have been made about the smell caused by the company, two of them during the same week. At that time, the smell has been detected both in the drains and in the air.
The Ely center has reacted to odor complaints received over the years by asking the operator for an explanation of the matter and, if necessary, giving a prompt to solve the problem.
In addition to odors, numerous other problems have been detected in the company’s operations, according to the ely center and Tukes.
For example, since 2017, Kierto Environmental Services has received notices about unauthorized storage every year.
In March of this year, ely-keskus, Tukes, building control and the rescue service carried out an inspection of the company, which found, among other things, abundant storage in the yard, deficiencies in packaging labels, deterioration of the yard and excess of the one-time storage of hazardous waste.
Read more: The police are investigating whether the Järvenpää chemical leak is related to a crime
Read more: The chemical spill in Järvenpää was only the tip of the iceberg, claim neighbors suffering from “acidic disease”
The company itself has informed the ely center of two fires in the early summer and an accident in which the hose of an already emptied tank truck had not been attached. The hose hung for some distance while the car was moving and poured liquid onto the ground.
Uusimaa who works as a coordinator at the ely center Jenni Ojalan According to Kierto, a lot of work has been done with the Environmental Services and other authorities this year.
“There are grievances, and they have been addressed. The company will correct the shortcomings, but then soon something new will come to light again.”
Ojala has worked as a site supervisor since March. During this time, the ely center has carried out a periodical inspection of the facility, such as was also carried out in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The ely center has also given Kierto Environmental Services prompts and clarification requests.
The previous supervisor made inspections of the area due to odor complaints, but did not detect an odor.
“Smell complaints are difficult because the smell is usually already gone by the time we get there,” says Ojala.
Ojala says that the ely center cannot intervene in the company’s operations based on “suspicions and assumptions”. However, there are requests for clarification.
“Neighbors are certainly very worried when there are smells. It may seem that the authorities are not doing anything about it, but I can say that a lot of working time has been spent on monitoring this object and clarifying things.”
Circulation Managing Director of Environmental Services Ltd Antti Eriksson assures that the company wants to correct all deficiencies that are detected in its operations.
“Of course, we want to fix all the problems, and that’s what we’ve done when they have come to light.”
According to Eriksson, the company also wants to address the odor problem that plagued the residents.
“We don’t want to create odor problems, but we want to react to them immediately.”
Support for the investigation Eriksson does not want to take a stand but leave the investigation to work.
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