BCAG Object to Carrington Power Station

BCAG were asked by Trafford Council Planning Department to provide a response to a consultation into the Carrington Power Station planning application. Here is our submission:[pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”100%”]

To: Victoria Ward, Development Control, Trafford Council.

Development: Consultation under Electricity Act 1989 (as amended) to vary the Section 36 Consent (H/CIR/71257) in respect of the Trafford Power Station combined cycle gas turbine generating station, to allow increases in the generating capacity to 2060 megawatts, together with electrical and auxillary equipment.

Location: Power Station, Manchester Road, Carrington, M31 4AY.

Application No.: 83364/C77/2014.

SUBMISSION BY BCAG (04/08/14)

1. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this planning variance.
2. However, we are concerned that the Government is putting pressure on Trafford Council to accept the variance, and the project to build another gas fired power station in Carrington. We are NOT criticising the Trafford Planning Committee, but we are convinced that the Government has already interfered with the democratic process and decided that this project is going ahead anyway.
3. Having said that, the Breathe Clean Air Group is opposed to this proposed variance, as well as the project to construct another gas fired power station at Carrington on the following grounds:
   a) air pollution, which will have serious ill-health impacts, and
   b) global warming.
4. The Breathe Clean Air Group was set up in 2010 to contest the building of the Barton Renewable Energy Plant in Davyhulme, Trafford, which is to be located less than 3 miles upstream of the Carrington site, along the Manchester Ship Canal (which also happens to be downwind of the prevailing south-westerly wind). Whilst conducting this campaign, BCAG undertook an ambient air monitoring survey and found that Davyhulme suffered levels of air pollution that was above the safety standard, particularly for nitrogen dioxide. Further, in 2014, BCAG is undertaking NO2 monitoring using diffusion tubes at a number of locations in Davyhulme and found that NO2 is approaching 50% ABOVE the limit of 40 ug/m3 in an AQMA.
5. Davyhulme cannot tolerate any additional nitrogen dioxide air pollution and yet this project’s Environmental Statement Addendum of April 2014 produced by Jacobs refers to sensitive receptors at 5.1.5.2 (page 16) showing that at Trafford AQMA, NO2 values increase from 1.8% to 2.1%.
6. The source of most of the NO2 in Davyhulme is the M60 motorway. However, additions of NO2 from other sources such as the proposed Davyhulme incinerator (BREP), the First Carrington Power Station (now being built), the Carrington paper mill incinerator, the proposed Port Salford and other developments, will bring more traffic (and hence NO2) into Davyhulme, and this factor has not been considered in the Variance.
7. The Variance proposal does not indicate the source of its methane gas. If in the future it chooses to burn methane from Fracking (shale or coal bed), this dirty gas will produce more SO2 and possibly benzene (a known carcinogen) as well.
8. The Variance ES does not consider Particulate Matter. Next year (2015) there will be a requirement to measure and control PM2.5 particulates as well as PM10. BCAG is also concerned about PM1 particulates and nano-particles which the law does not recognise yet and which also have serious ill-health impacts.
9. The UK government is being prosecuted by the European Union for exceeding air pollution safety limits.

   GLOBAL WARMING.

10. Methane is a serious greenhouse gas which is reputed to be 105 times more devastating than carbon dioxide. A report from USA claims that between 2 and 8 % methane leakage increases global warming significantly. The Carrington power station will add to the demand in methane which could increase the amount of leakage. Also, the more methane that is burnt, the more CO2 goes to atmosphere.
11. The Synthesis Report of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, concluded, “investing huge amounts of scarce resources into burning more fossil fuels like gas, flies in the face of expert scientific evidence that we should be urgently engaged in the cessation of fossil fuel burning in the interests of Humanity and the Biosphere”.
12. Professor David Shearman (emeritus professor of Medicine at the University of Adelaide) stated “The International Energy Agency has expressed concern about gas replacing renewable energy sources. This would delay any chance of early curtailment of greenhouse emissions. Climate change is accepted as a huge threat to health, worldwide.”
13. The Breathe Clean Air Group believes that the Government should be investing in clean, non-carbon energy such as solar, wind, tidal, wave and hydro electricity.
14. We urge that the Variance and the gas fired power station be REJECTED.

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