Greenpeace lists ICI and BP as major polluters

GREENPEACE, the environmental pressure group, yesterday named ICI and British Petroleum in a list claiming to identify Scotland's major polluters.

Scotland's river purification boards, which monitor marine pollution, were also accused of being weaker than the National Rivers Ayuthority in enforcing legal guidelines.

A 'lethal cocktail' of pollutants that included oil, toxic organochlorines and heavy metals were being annually poured into Scotland's estuary and coastal environments, Greenpeace said. Oil and chemical plants, especially concentrated around the Firth of Forth, and including ICI and BP's main chemical and oil complexes, were 'major offenders'.

According to Greenpeace, polluters in Scotland are also less likely to be prosecuted - they claim an average of 72 incidents in 1990 for every successful prosecution in Scotland, compared to 52 for England and Wales.

ICI in Grangemouth said that Greenpeace had manipulated discharge figures. Neil Menzies, its Scottish affairs adviser, said: 'A lot of the information . . .has been very carefully selected.'

BP Oil said that it had a problem with excessive ammonia discharges into the Forth, 'but had taken a unit out of production'.