Leading Biomass Expert’s Report on Threat Posed by Davyhulme Incinerator
Mary Booth, a leading Biomass Expert, Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmental Analyst, has written a report into the concerns that she has found within relation to the Davyhulme Incinerator proposals.
My testimony will largely focus on emissions of heavy metals emissions from this facility, which I believe will represent a very serious threat to the health of the surrounding community. I believe, and intend to demonstrate, that emissions of heavy metals and other pollutants have been underestimated, and that for some other pollutants, the emissions levels are inexcusably high, given the emissions controls that are available and could be used at the facility. I will also comment on the net greenhouse gas emissions impact by the facility. While I am dismayed by the inadequacy of the controls for NOx and the cavalier attitude of permitting authorities regarding adding to the NOx burden when health standards in the area are already exceeded, this topic is well covered by others, so I will only cover it briefly.
To support my arguments, I will draw on the work I have done in the United States, where I have been involved in regulatory processes around biomass power and where I have reviewed numerous air emissions permits for wood-burning plants, including plants that burn construction and demolition (C&D) wood. I am dismayed at the low quality of the analysis offered by the Barton developer, and accepted by the Environment Agency, and by the overall the lack of rigor in the permitting process..
The general theme that runs throughout my comments is that emissions – of greenhouse gases, of metals, and of other pollutants including NOx and VOCs – have consistently been underestimated or even actively misrepresented. This means that the Barton facility will present a greater threat to human health and the environment than the EA or the developer admits.
We live in an Air Quality Management Area ( Heavily polluted) What is the purpose of an Air Quality Management Area if not to strive to improve the air quality in that area. Are we going back to the dark ages. Trafford people do not want this plant, or need it. WE ARE ALREADY HAVING BUILT AN 850MW GAS POWER STATION.
Enough is enough!!!!
Thanks Jo and all – is there a public day or evening, as we had in Derby -we also have AQMAs which will be affected by RRS/Shanks incineration stack and traffic emissions.
Well said Mary; the problem is that too many companies care about the health of their balance sheet rather than the health of the population they may affect. We had a similar issue in Barrow in Furness when Centrica intended to build a Biomass Plant. Massive local opposition was being ignored, including a 14,500 signature petition to Downing Street, independent Environmental Impact assessment which highlighted many of the opposition groups concerns, opposition from 5 MEP’s, our local MP, the Borough Council and the County Council…we even had an assurance from Centrica’s Head of Thermal Projects that Centrica would not try to impose the plant on us if we did not want it….they still tried……even a Centrica representative said he would not want to live near the plant……what really seemed to sway things for the developer was a potential reduction in the income it might receive.
Eventually Centrica withdrew its application, perhaps realising that public opposition and a Local Impact Assessment combined with the potential reduction in subsidy £46 million per annum) ….hope you too can succeed and stop this development.