FLOW CHART - ENVIRONMENTAL INCIDENT INVESTIGATION - 26.06.2019

A thorough response to incidents

Taking responsibility

If the environment is put at risk by an incident involving your activities, you need to ensure that there’s a quick and effective response. But once you’ve minimised the impact of the incident what happens next? Our flow chart - environmental incident investigation shows the key elements of the process in an easy to read format.

Tip. Adapt the flow chart to meet your own procedural requirements and keep it to hand, e.g. display it on a noticeboard.

What’s covered?

The first action on the flow chart is “Initiate emergency response” . This is followed by a question: “Does the incident need to be reported to an external authority?” . We’ve included notes here to guide you.

They explain that the Environment Agency (EA) may not be the only authority that requires a phone call. Others to consider are the fire brigade, water company or local authority. Regarding notification to the EA, we’ve described the types of event which would warrant a report, e.g. if there’s pollution to the wider environment or a risk to wildlife.

Gathering information

Alongside reporting your incident to the authorities, managers need to quickly attend to investigating it. Photographs should be taken as soon as the immediate threat has passed. Plus there should be a note made of who was present at the time. We’ve suggested that in the first instance the supervisor or line manager responsible for the activity should collate this information and then escalate the incident to more senior staff.

In deep

Once senior management or an appointed environmental advisor has taken over, they should collect more detailed information. It might be appropriate to arrange for some sampling of the substance released from a polluted watercourse or contaminated soil. We’ve suggested that this is considered and, where applicable, protective clothing worn.

Secondly, witness statements should be taken from all those who were directly involved or who observed the events. By gathering these statements straightaway staff will recall a better level of detail than if there’s a delay.

With all the data collected the manager responsible for the investigation identifies the immediate and root causes of the incident and decides what needs to be done to prevent a recurrence. Our flow chart describes this process, followed by completion of the investigation report and notification to insurers. We’ve finished by suggesting you enter the details on your incident database and implement remedial actions.

Tip. Keep your report and the associated documents and evidence in a safe place, where it can be retrieved easily. You might need it to defend yourself against future legal action.

For a flow chart - environmental incident, visit http://tipsandadvice-environment.co.uk/download (EN 14.02.05).