ARE YOU AWARE OF THE RECENT PLANS TO BUILD WASTE INCINERATION PLANT BETWEEN BARTON STACEY AND LONGPARISH?

[Wheelabrator Incinerator in USA]

Information has been mostly limited to Social Media and lots of local people will be affected by these proposals, not just those living in Barton Stacey or Longparish.

It will not just affect the villages on Barton Stacey & Longparish but all local towns and villages within a 5-10km radius:

Anyone opposed to these plans, only has until 22nd March 2019 to write their concerns to the nominated consultees (local Parish Council,  local Council and local MP)

Here is some essential information:

Wheelabrator Technologies, a US company, has submitted a scoping report to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, requesting development consent to build a 51 MW waste-to-energy facility at the A303 Enviropark (leased by Raymond Brown), between Barton Stacey and Longparish. Since this is considered a ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project’, it bypasses local planning requirements and will be considered at a national level by the Secretary of State. If the application had been made for a 49MW facility, the permission would be decided at local council level. 

KEY POINTS ABOUT THE PROPOSED PLANT (taken from Wheelabrator’s scoping report)

• The plant will process up a minimum of 500,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste (only) a year, with the aim of providing power for 100,000 homes. There is zero local domestic waste being incinerated.  The energy produced from the incineration will need to connect to the National Grid so the local area will also see pylons through the countryside: The Applicant (Wheelabrator) have stated that they have identified a site 7km from their proposed development for connection to the national grid via a 132kV overhead line. The Applicant advised that they do not propose to include this within their application as this can be progressed by a Distribution Network Operator.” (Taken from a meeting note Wheelabrator had with planning inspectorate July 2018). 

• It will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will have a 50-year operational life.

• The initial building drawings show the proposed plant to be the same length and height (both building and chimneys) as Battersea Power Station.

• The proposed main building would be large enough to house Winchester Cathedral twice over, with the roof height a further 10 metres taller than the cathedral tower.

• The two chimney stacks will be up to 100m high and could be visible up to 30km away.

• Peak workforce during the construction phase is expected to be up to 1,000 personnel (most likely sub-contracted, specialist teams rather than using local trades). It will account for only 50 jobs once complete.

• If a consent order is granted, construction could start as early as 2022 and last approx. 3.5 years.

SOME POSSIBLE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE FACILITY

• Hampshire already has three waste incineration facilities – in Marchwood, Chineham and Portsmouth. These three facilities can process over 420,000 tonnes of waste a year between them. This proposed incinerator will burn more than their total combined and ALL of the waste burnt in the planned facility would be commercial/imported waste imported from elsewhere (some from abroad given proximity to Southampton shipping). There will be zero domestic waste burnt from Hampshire.
• One of the by-products of waste incineration is dioxins, which the World Health Organisation links to reproductive and developmental issues and damage to the immune system.1
• Wheelabrator doesn’t have the best environmental track record – in 2011, it was fined $7.5m for alleged environmental violations. It has admitted further spillages in the years since.
• Unlike other plants of this size, the only transport links to this site are by road, thereby increasing the load on two already over-burdened A roads (A303 & A34). Conservative calculations estimate that there will be a lorry entering the site every 2.5 minutes.
• How will the water being extracted upstream of Longparish to supply the plant affect those downstream in terms of water pressure?
• What are the risks of groundwater contamination from ALL the plant processes (not just the incineration process), including leaching of the toxic ash mountains, given that the River Dever is only 800m away and the River Test 1 mile from the site.
• How will heated water be discharged back into the environment without affecting the local ecology? Wheelabrator will not be using the heat energy and converting it.

1 https://www.who.int/ipcs/assessment/public_health/dioxins/en/

Additional issues to consider:

Pollution/health issues

• Clean air and particulate removal.
• Asbestos contamination in materials being incinerated.
• Water discharge (sensitive local rivers and world class local trout fishery).
• Noise (scrubbers on existing particulate removal plant @ Eastleigh (part of Hampshire fire and rescue facilities.) recorded at just under 100 dBA.)
• Vibrations from the plant
• Dust generation
• Light pollution – 24/7 operation. The chimney stacks in Longparish/Barton Stacey will need floodlighting 24 hours a day on the chimney to avoid aircraft collision.
• Additional lorry traffic – and increase in emissions pollution and litter from this (there is already a problem with no toilet facilities for drivers so the slip roads are used instead and littered with human excrement).
• Waste generation: the flue gas treatment residue will contain fly ash from the boiler and reagents and reaction products from the hydrated lime scrubber. This material is designated as hazardous waste and therefore is required to be treated before disposal to landfill. This residue will therefore be segregated and stored in sealed silos, before being transported off-site for processing or disposal by appropriately licensed contractors.

Ecological Issues:

• Preventing the disruption of known Bats, Owls, Deer, Moths, Badgers (others?)

Safety issues:

• Increase in vehicles from A303 – short slip roads off junction/inappropriate design of sliproads for number and size of vehicles. 
• Is Barton Stacey bridge strong enough?
• Traffic through villages when A303 is blocked – how will this be managed?
• Proposal of a rail link
• Effect on MOD training area – low flying/helicopter training.
• Is Popham airfield affected?

Other issues:

• Visual impact.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Write to your local council and your local councillors documenting your concerns (there’s lots of useful info on the Facebook page, link below). This NSIP is a consultation process, so without concerns raised by the locals, Wheelabrator do not need to address them in their proposals:

Please contact your nominated Councillor at HCC, TVBC or Winchester City Council and copy in your local Westminster MP as well as your Parish Council.

Please also cc in Wheelabrator as all this correspondence acts as a back marker to their “consultation process” and they have to be accountable to answering questions

info@wtiharewood.co.uk

There is no need at this point to argue for or against, just to ask questions in relation to the concerns you may have. The questions have to be answered and addressed.

• Please do also spread awareness – inform those who are not on social media and who

may not have read about it in the local news.

For info: view from the air of a Wheelabrator plant in Massachusetts, USA

USEFUL LINKS

Wheelabrator’s Proposal: here

Wheelabrator’s Scoping Report: here

A public Facebook page set up by local residents where you can keep up to date with what’s happening and view further information about the plans:

Here is an interesting measured letter written to Wheelabrator to highlight the inappropriate location of this facility: here.