Incinerator will ‘not affect health’

Apr 21 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

INCINERATOR company Grundon Waste Management has broken its silence over their controversial project for Perth’s Shore Road.

The company is proposing to build a 90,000 tonnes a year energy from waste plant and technical consultants took in the Kinnoull Church meeting to discuss an application for the approval of reserved matters – including an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

Estates manager Bob Nicholson welcomed the opportunity to explain the company’s proposals – and yesterday he praised the handling of the meeting by Brian Raine, chairman of the Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council.

Mr Nicholson confirmed the history of the proposal, noting that outline planning consent was granted to Holden Environmental in March 2006, for an EfW plant to take residual household and commercial/industrial waste from the Perth and Kinross area.

He stressed: “There has never been a proposal for an anaerobic digestion plant – or for an EfW facility solely to accept residual waste from the Holden Environmental recycling operation, as this would be completely uneconomic.”

Subsequently, Holden Environmental and Grundon entered into a commercial relationship.

He said: “As part of the outline consent, Grundon was asked to submit an application to resolve outstanding matters. In response, Grundon decided to undertake an EIA, submitting an environmental statement which provided additional information to that required by the planning consent, such as ecology, heritage and vehicle movements.”

Mr Nicholson added: “The existing Holden’s facility is currently used by many low volume vehicles, generally on short trips.

“It should be highlighted that deliveries to the proposed EfW plant will be considerably more efficient than those currently used, with each vehicle carrying a higher payload.

“Consequently the proposed EfW will create only 15 extra deliveries – that’s 30 vehicle movements per day when compared with the current operation.

“Modern EfW plants are highly efficient at carrying out their three main functions – burning residual waste left after recycling as a sustainable alternative to landfill, cleaning up the emissions to atmosphere to meet exacting EU standards and generating non-fossil fuel heat and power.

“These functions would all be monitored by SEPA under the conditions of a site Pollution Prevention Control Permit. These new plants demonstrably have no adverse impact on the local environment or on local health.”

Grundon now anticipates that the planning authority will consult with various parties and expects requests for further information in due course.