Community Council battling latest Grundon blueprint

Jun 24 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

COMMUNITY councillors battling Grundon’s controversial new incinerator plans warn they could spell disaster for Perth, writes Gordon Bannerman.

Last month, Grundon Waste Management renewed their bid to secure the green light for a £100 million waste to energy plant on the city’s Shore Road, after being rebuffed by a Holyrood inquiry.

Now, after carefully weighing-up fresh proposals lodged recently with Perth and Kinross Council, Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council admit they are “disappointed” that another reserved matters application has been formally lodged this week with PKC.

And yesterday they recalled the legacy of the Bhopal disaster in India, claiming Grundon’s plans to harness “unproven” new technology would crank-up the risk factor for the Fair City.

A community council spokesman, who has urged the public to bombard the council with objections before a July 8 planning deadline, said: “The community council has consistently opposed the inappropriate use of this small site for a large-scale heavy industry operation, close to major leisure areas such as the South Inch and close to residential areas such as Craigie, Bridgend, and Kinnoull, and clearly visible from many views around the Perth area.

“In their new Shore Road planning application, Grundon has replaced its waste-burning factory by a new, unproven chemical technology, which they believe will reduce the plant footprint and hence the over-development of the site.

“Moving from waste-burning to a high-level chemical engineering project significantly moves the proposal up the risk spectrum.

“A plant where chemical reactions take place always introduces risks. The risks introduced by Grundon's new proposal are not trivial and whilst it is likely that steps will be taken to reduce the risks, it is never possible to eliminate them.

“It is worth reflecting that the worst chemical disaster in history occurred in Bhopal, where many thousands were killed due to the release of a toxic gas.

“Had the Bhopal plant not been in the middle of a large community, then Bhopal would merely be a chemical plant accident – in all likelihood there would have been no, or very few, fatalities.

“Shore Road is the wrong place for a large-scale energy-from-waste plant. The risks involved with Grundon's initial proposal for a waste-burning incinerator recognised significant potential problems with noise and smell, as well as concerns about the contents of the stack gases and where they might settle.”

Community councillor Dave Beattie, a former chemical engineer, said: “The risks that are introduced by the new proposal stem mainly from the production of so-called syngas.

“This gas, which is the major product of the plant, is mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Any air ingress into the low pressure areas of the process has the potential to cause uncontrolled exothermic reactions – explosions – and any leak from the high pressure areas of the process risks community exposure to deadly carbon monoxide poisoning.

“Thus, Grundon's new proposal represents a very significant risk to the community, a risk that is very new and a direct consequence of the new technology.”

Graham Fleming, Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull CC’s acting chairman, added: “Grundon is in no position to claim that the outline planning permission deems the site to be suitable for this application.

“Shore Road is not a suitable location for managing the risks associated with the production of syngas. The proposed development adjoins the prison, a busy major road and the recreational areas of the South Inch as well as being close to residential areas.

“The opportunity to control or mitigate a plant problem is significantly reduced by the absence of a sanitised buffer zone around the plant.

“The Shore Road site would never meet the selection criteria of an objective chemical engineer – it has been selected subjectively due to the availability of existing outline planning permission.

“The risks associated with syngas production are neither highlighted nor quantified in their documentation. “Grundon is quietly hoping that the council and SEPA will fail to pick them up. It certainly would be a travesty if this substantially different application were to be allowed to stand with the same material considerations as were deemed suitable for a waste-burning plant.

“The centre of Perth should not be used as a testing ground for this technology.”

Objectors are being asked to cite planning application reference 11/00788/AMM in their letters.

GRUNDON’S new energy-from waste facility planning application was officially lodged with PKC this week.

The Reading-based firm has submitted a raft of documents in support of the Shore Road bid via their agent, RPS Planning and Development, Edinburgh.

The huge volume of paperwork includes environmental statements in five parts, technical summaries and planning statement.

The full plans can be viewed online or in person at PKC’s Pullar House offices in Perth.

The council’s planning department have set a target date for determination of the application of October 7.