While Californians scramble to contain a catastrophic toxic leak near the San Francisco Bay, Whitehall mandarins are quietly congratulating themselves on Britain's 'gold standard' regulatory system. Sources confirm that the leak, from a chemical plant owned by a US subsidiary of a London-listed conglomerate, has forced the evacuation of thousands and left a plume of carcinogens drifting over Silicon Valley. But here at home, the Environment Agency boasts it would never happen on its watch.
Documents obtained by this paper show that the UK's COMAH regulations require operators to submit 'demonstrably fail-safe' failover protocols for any storage of hazardous substances above a threshold. The American facility, by contrast, appears to have been running on a patchwork of state waivers and self-certifications. One former Environment Agency officer, granted anonymity to speak freely, told me: 'We have a world-leading system.
It's a pain in the arse for business, but when something goes wrong, you're glad it's there.' The company's shares have already fallen 12 per cent in London trading. But the real question is whether that drop reflects the value of the regulation that prevented this from happening on our soil.
Or the cost of the political cover-up that allowed it to happen elsewhere.
