SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency)
Report on Emission Breaches from DERL incinerator, Baldovie, Dundee
SEPA reports that in November 2007 the Baldovie incinerator was in breach of emission limits for particulates, dioxins, furans and metals (click here). The following year it failed an Operator Performance Assessment by breaching limits for dioxins and furans (click here). Both of these breaches occurred in spite of the installation of £1.2m of new clean up technology in 2004 (Click here).
This prompted us to make a Freedom of Information request into emission breaches over the past 3 years. SEPA informed us that in order to provide a full list, they would take about eight hours and charge us £300. However, they agreed to provide us with a summary for free. We opted for the summary.
The summary is quite shocking. Although the Baldovie incinerator was only built in 2000, and was meant to be a state-of-the-art incinerator capable of meeting the most stringent modern safety standards, it has, time and time again, breached those standards. Between March and August 2008, the plant was in breach of emission limits for dioxins by a factor of three. In June 2009 a period test found that dioxin emissions were 50% higher than allowed levels.
Draft version of Tayside Area Waste Plan
This shows beyond doubt that after a thorough "Options Appraisal" and "Stakeholder Consultation", the three Tayside Waste authorities had decided to reject the option of seeking new EfW facilities. Instead they decided that the Best Practicable Environmental Option was simply to increase recycling, while burning residual waste (i.e. waste that could not be recycled) in the existing DERL EfW facility in Dundee. See pages 26-31.
Published version of Tayside Area Waste Plan
The final published version of the Tayside Area Waste Plan conveniently omits the fact that the three Tayside authorities had prviously completely rejected the option of seeking new EfW facilities. However virtually all references to EfW are purely in connection to the existing DERL EfW facility in Dundee.
In 2006 the three Tayside Area Waste Group authorities (Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus) produced a new waste plan, designed to get funding from the Government for new waste management facilities. In the plan, Perth & Kinross says it needs a 60,000 tonne-per-annum incinerator. The Council then submitted a BPEO Compliance Assessment Form to SEPA, claiming the SOC was in line with Best Practicable Environmental Option (defined in the Tayside Area Waste Plan of 2003). The SOC is full of nonsense about how municipal waste will grow in Perth and Kinross by an average of 2.5% every year up to 2020, despite the fact that the Scottish Government has repeatedly stated that it will halt the growth in municipal waste by 2010, and reduce it thereafter.
BPEO Compliance Self-Assessment Form, filled in by Perth & Kinross Council
In May 2006, 6 months before the Development Control Committee approved the incinerator, Council officers submitted this BPEO Compliance Assessment Form to SEPA. The Council claims that the proposals comply with Best Practicable Environmental Option as defined in the Tayside Area Waste Plan.
Based largely on this self-assessment, SEPA subsequently informed the Scottish Executive that the Council's decision to seek new EfW facilities was in line with BPEO (see letter from SEPA officer). This would have greatly influenced Scottish Ministers when they decided in 2007 not to intervene with the Council's decision to grant planning permission to SITA's proposed EfW facility at Binn Farm.
Decision by Scottish Ministers not to intervene in Council's grant of planning permission
As is usual with big (and unpopular) projects, the Council's grant of planning permission to SITA was referred to Scottish Ministers for their consideration. In August 2007 Scottish Ministers decided not intervene. Section 12 of the Ministers' decision repeats the misinformation provided by the Council to SEPA in its BPEO Compliance Self-Assessment Form, i.e. that it complies with BPEO etc.
Recommendation to Development Control
Committee by Head of Development Standards, 2006 - Reading this report will shock you. Perth & Kinross Council dismisses all objections out of hand.
Media Statement from Perth & Kinross Council, 2 Aug 07. This repeats the information in the above report, and states that the Executive's suggestion that the Council forms a new waste plan has "..negated all previous work which had been done." However only a month later (28 August) the Scottish Executive decided that it would not intervene in the decision by Perth & Kinross to allow the construction of the incinerator. There is therefore some uncertainty in the current position.
Waste Figures for 2008
This table shows the latest breakdown of municipal waste in Perth and
Kinross
- Introduction to public consultation, 2001
- Consultation questionnaire
- Report on consultation results
- Policy based on consultation results
Peter Jones, Director of Biffa Waste Services, produced a report saying incineration produces up to 2 tonnes of Co2 per tonne of waste burnt.
Infant mortality data near incinerators - a PowerPoint compiled and created by Mr Michael Ryan BSc C Eng, MICE
life cycle assessment of municipal waste management options in scotland, SEPA, October 2007
This report compares 5 options for waste management. However none of the options includes the most environmentally friendly option - to reduce the amount of rubbish we produce in the first place. Also, the report ignores the mountain of CO2 produced by rubbish before it enters the waste stream, thereby skewing the figures in favour of incineration.
A Short Guide to Life Cycle Assessment, SEPA, July 2007 - an explanation of how the above report was prepared.