Oil Spills – Are the regulations working?

Even with Oil Storage Regulations in place to prevent oil spills and leaks, there are still over 9 incidents a day that could be avoided*.

These pollution incidents can cause damage to health and properties. Just two litres of oil will pollute around 3,000 litres of fresh water – enough water to fill an Olympic size swimming pool.

When oil gets into waterways, it smothers plants and can harm and kill birds, animals and sea life. It can also threaten drinking water supplies.

Most of these problems are caused by badly maintained oil tanks and poor transportation of domestic heating oil. Tank owners, whether commercial or domestic, are responsible for accidents that happen when their oil is being transported, yet many insurance companies do not provide cover for this.

The regulations, enforced by the Environment Agency, mean fines of up to £20,000 can be given to owners of poorly maintained tanks.

If you are caught not complying with the regulations - which state that oil must be stored in strong tanks with a secondary containment to catch leaks - you could be fined £5,000.

Yet even if the regulations do not apply to you, you can still be prosecuted and fined £20,000 if oil from your site causes pollution, whether deliberately or accidentally.

So with oil spills occurring daily, are the regulations working? With so much money to lose, it seems the regulations are putting people off heating oil altogether rather than just trying to avoid spills.

Have your say

Have you been affected by oil pollution? Were you made to pay huge clean-up costs or have you been the victim of someone else’s poorly maintained oil tank? What do you think the answer is – better storage, harsher fines or should a different fuel be used altogether?