A paper mill accidentally spilled 30 m³ of resin into the River MOSELLE, causing the death of 2.25 t of fish and a preventive shutdown of the water abstraction points. During the plant’s annual shutdown, maintenance work was scheduled for 29/07 on the establishment’s treatment plant structures. The effluents collected on the site were therefore poured into a 1,000 m³ emergency basin where they settled and overflowed into the River MOSELLE. At 8:00 am on 9 August, the manager of the paper machine the automatic filling and drainage system of chest no. CB105, containing 200 l of resin (pH 3). This product is used in the preparation of pulp to promote the retention of dyes and improve the water resistance of paper.

At 4:30 pm, a fisheries officer noticed that the aqueous discharges from the plant were whitish in colour and that a foaming phenomenon was occurring 50 m downstream in the River MOSELLE. The pH measurements on the safety basin’s inlet and outlet indicated 2.9 and 3 respectively. The effluent was neutralised using sodium hydroxide. After searching for the cause of the acid discharge, at 6:30 pm the operator closed the manual drain valve on chest CB105 that was found open. Analysis of the supervision of the resin storage tanks showed that chest CB105 was filled automatically at around 11:30 am and drained several times when the upper level was reached. At 7:10 pm, the effluents collected in the emergency basin were directed to the waste-water treatment plant which was restarted.

The operator prohibited any discharge from chest CB105 into the sewers by blocking the manual drain valve, making similar chests safe, raising the level of the overflow on the emergency basin and stopping its use as a settling tank. It was fined €150,000.