Company to 'eliminate cyanide-based processes' at site of toxic canal spill

-Credit:Google
-Credit:Google


A planning application has been submitted by Anochrome Ltd as the company reduces its dependency on hazardous materials and eliminates cyanide-based processes. The company on Reservoir Place was identified last year as the source of the toxic cyanide spillage into Walsall ’s canal network.

Last week Anochrome put forward plans to decommission its current processing line that operates on a ‘less favourable and more environmentally hazardous technology’, and to install a ‘more favourable and less environmentally hazardous technology’ elsewhere on the site.

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The new processing line will be installed at the southern end of the site, inside an existing building currently used for storage. No external alterations have been proposed in the plans apart from the installation of an extract flue.

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If the plans are approved, the company said the changes would not lead to an increase in business or staffing levels, or impact the frequency or volume of vehicles entering and leaving the site.

Anochrome, founded in Walsall in 1946, specialises in metal finishing which refers to a series of processes to improve the properties of metal pieces making them more durable. There are six companies in the group, four of them based in the West Midlands and two in Europe.

At the Reservoir Place site the company employs 58 staff members. Its customers include Jaguar Land Rover, Alstom Transport, Bombardier and JCB. The business says it is the largest independent specialist surface coatings and metal finishing company in the world.

In August 2024, Anochrome Ltd was identified by the Environment Agency as the source of toxic chemical spillage into Walsall’s canal network. Approximately 4,000 litres of sodium cyanide leaked into the canal, leading to the closure of a 12-mile stretch of the waterway.

Five months on, the Environment Agency said pollution levels had reduced to an acceptable level, but a small section of the canal remains closed.