Davyhulme Incinerator Next Step
Nearly fifty people attended the Pre Inquiry Meeting on the future of the controversial Barton Renewable Energy Plant on Thursday (6th September) at Sale Town Hall. Although the meeting was solely to determine the ground rules for the full Public Inquiry to be held in November, one anxious member of the public spoke out with passion about the danger to health that would result if the Incinerator was built in Davyhulme.
“Today’s meeting was the next step in a long process to determine if it was fair and legal to install a waste wood burning incinerator in a populated area” said Pete Kilvert, Chairman of the Breathe Clean Air Group. “The incinerator plans to burn 200,000 tonnes of waste wood from construction and demolition sites and solid recovered fuel including waste plastic. The filtration process is out-dated bag filters, which won’t be able to capture all the pollution that goes up a chimney stack which is only half the height it should be”.
“It’s somewhat ironic” added Mr Kilvert, “that only this week, the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA has announced a long-overdue revision of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulates. Also this week, the Massachusetts State Government has legislated to tighten the rules on biomass incinerators”.
A paper from the Energy Justice Network in America says that medical professionals agree that particulates, especially the smaller ones, can enter deep into the lungs to such an extent that there is no safe level. Biomass incinerators spew particulates and nano-particles so small that they can bypass most of the body’s defences and deliver toxins directly into the bloodstream.
The next step in the planning process will be the Public Inquiry to be held at Manchester United Football Ground commencing on 13th November. The Breathe Clean Air Group is encouraging members of the public to attend and have their say. See www.BreatheCleanAirGroup.co.uk for details.