Emergency Planning
Industrial accidents
The 2015 the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) aim to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances and limit the consequences to people and the environment of any which do occur.
The COMAH Regulations give detailed advice about the scope of, and the duties imposed by the legislation to the operators of such establishments, the emergency services and the Local Authorities. A key feature of the COMAH Regulations is that they are enforced by a Competent Authority, which comprises of the Health & Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
COMAH establishments are graded by the Competent Authority as either upper-tier or lower-tier dependant on the quantities and types of substances they produce and/or store.
The COMAH Regulations 2015 place a duty on Local Authority in whose administrative area an upper establishment is situated to prepare an external emergency plan specifying the measures to be taken outside the establishment in the event of a major accident.
The COMAH Regulations require that the Operator of a top-tier establishment produces two plans:
- An On-site Emergency Plan, which is prepared by the operator, to specify the response to an emergency which may affect those who work on the site.
- An Eexternal Emergency Plan, which has to be prepared by the Local Authority, which specifies the co-ordinated response of partner agencies to an emergency which has any off-site effects.
Currently we have 5 top tier sites located in Pembrokeshire these being:
- Puma - Milford Haven
- Valero - Pembroke
- Valero Pembrokeshire Oil Terminal - Waterston
- Dragon LNG - Waterston
- South Hook LNG - Herbranston
All of these sites have on-site and external site plans, with the plans being tested and exercised every three years.