If the scrubbers didn't do their job perhaps the operators didn't
know wtf they were doing.
Efficient scrubbers do require talented attention. I worked on
scrubber technology at KACC and scubbers can be run so that
their is no effluent. Ringleman's be damned. However, if you
neglect the system it willl screw up. Like anything else. You
run it properly or forget it. Trouble is way too many of our
technical monitors forgot to read the directions. You know
what I am talking about. Engineering hubris.
I don't need to read the instructions I am an Engineer.

btw, late edit.
Of course you do not get pollutant free combustion unless you are
burning straight H2. However, the pollutant with scrubbers is
contained and eminently disposable as ash and not acres of
diaper land fill.