Went to a public exhibition this week. Held by Cory Wheelabrator (yes, I know!) who have been appointed as preferred constructor and operator of a scheme by Norfolk County Council (NCC) to build an incinerator - usually referred to as an Energy From Waste (EFW) plant - for the county's waste while also generating electricity for the national grid.
I'll come to the nuts and bolts of the scheme a bit later but first we need to examine the idea that incineration is the best solution. Now we all know that landfill is ceasing to be an option in the UK, even less in Norfolk. All the significant remainders of gravel extraction (for building the 39-45 war airfields mostly) are full of something, including waste, water and new developments. The cost of using the rare holes in other parts of the UK means that is not an option.
Recycling helps but the mountains of waste of our modern world defy reasonable disposal. Public apathy does the rest. Stopping the mostly retail world from generating so much in the first place is the right solution but entirely too slow and subject to political cowardice anyway.
So we come to physical reduction by some means. Incineration comes in many forms but the essential is to reduce waste by both weight and mass, extract metals and chemicals, dispose of toxins and generate electricity. Most of the ash remainder can be used for building materials. Sounds great.
So to the NCC/Cory project. This is distractingly called the Willows Power and Recycling Centre, which is pretty cuddly but essentially whimsical. It is a massive industrial complex which will be fed and relieved by armies of heavy goods vehicles. Tipping bulk carriers basically, often seen ferrying such things as beet. Cory will find the money - £500 million - to design, build, commission and then operate the plant in what is a PFI project. You know about those; if not Google and be horrified.
NCC is contracted to provide 175,000 tonnes of waste per year for which they will pay. NCC is expecting to save £8 million a year compared to landfill costs - some £200 million across the 25 year lifetime of the plant. Domestic waste should reduce over time; NCC says it will make up any shortfall by doing deals with commercial waste companies. Bit late chaps - Cory's plant will also handle nearly 100,000 tonnes of commercial waste. They've already talked to them.
Now come the issues. NCC is the prime mover and customer for this project. It has already acquired the site. But it is also the planning authority. And get this: if planning permission is not given NCC will be committed to paying Cory over £20 million for their trouble so far.
In effect Cory has a risk free business model. They get a guaranteed customer and major contracted usage (175k tonnes) but if it does not go ahead all the designs, planning environmental investigation costs are covered by the penalty. I do admire them.
But there are some even more serious buts. This highly advanced plant will reduce exhaust emissions to very low levels and save some 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide - the greenhouse gas - a year. However there will be dioxins and other toxic pollutants still left in the emission, albeit in admittedly low quantities. In fact low enough to pass the relevant health standards. But the site is on the south western edge of Kings Lynn, a town of some 45,000 people, including a major hospital and the usual schools. The town is thus on the windward side in general climatic terms; the emission blow over the town most days. Cory assures us that the emissions pose no risk to health and that the control system means any variation from minimal requirements will shut the plant. They also however say there is no peer reviewed research suggesting a link between emissions from such EFW plants. They say it like it means there is no link; what it means in fact is we don't have any reliable information yet. So the 45,000 residents of Kings Lynn will live their daily lives as close as 475 metres (Cory's own figure) from the plant 24x7 for at least 25 years.
That's not good enough in my view and that of many others. By the way, I live 25 miles away so this is not NIMBYism, as if there was anything wrong with people trying to protect their own environment anyway. But to move on.
Norfolk is a large county and Kings Lynn is about as far west as you can get. Given that 188 heavy goods vehicles will visit and depart the site every day is that a good idea? Even I admit that serious pollutants and carbon dioxide from HGVs is a major health concern. So the site is wrong on two planning counts.
There is another serious health issue. The waste burned will be reduced to about 29 per cent of its weight - far more in terms of its mass, of course. Most of that 60,000 tonnes ayear will be 'bottom ash' which will be stored for further materials recovery. Stored here means placed in a huge ash lagoon. This ash is highly toxic. It will stay where it is when it is wet. It will, we are assured, be kept damped down. Kings Lynn hopes so, and that no human error arises to interfere. And the ash will be treated to render it suitable for making construction blocks. Using water in part. We are assured this water will not leach into the earth water courses. We hope so. We are assured that this material in transit to lorry will not be blown about the site - or town as it is known. If it all sounds optimistic then I agree with you.
There is yet more for our concern. NCC is committed to this project yet we are told it will be the NCC elected representatives who will decide the planning application. Objectively, we are told. But NCC is also going to be committed to shelling out £20 million if the plan does not get permission. Objective decision by elected representatives, we are told.
I could of course go on because there is a lot more in the plan to be concerned about and for which, for the most part we are asked to accept assurances.
But it worries me even more to find there is an alternative which is claimed to be more certain of safe operation in emission terms - plasma incineration. Now I have yet to find out a lot about that but it seems I have a good chance of doing so. There is such a plant in Swindon already and incredibly a huge plant is to be built at Peterborough. To handle 600,000 tonnes of waste a year; more than twice the capacity of the Willows. Peterborough is the next town along from Kings Lynn, about 20 miles or so. Its not in Norfolk but, well honestly, have our objective elected representatives and their adviser really though about using that one? Its at the wrong end of the county but so is King Lynn. It won't be 'ours' but neither will Cory's. But it would mean the people of Kings Lynn could be spared the risk that so far has not been eliminated by peer reviewed studies.
Me? I hope they don't build this one. There may be a case for incineration one way or another but siting the plant is bit more critical than just happening on a bit of spare land.
The exhibition? Oh sorry. Nice bit of PR. No sign of anyone from Norfolk County. Lot of keen, highly informed people. Nice irony that it was held in Fakenham Church...
