Plans to build a waste transfer station capable of handling household refuse in the Scottish Borders region have come under scrutiny from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.
Scottish Borders council announced plans to build the facility at Easter Langlee in Galashiels in autumn 2016 as a ‘medium-term solution’ to its waste disposal requirements.
The waste transfer station will be located at the former proposed New Earth site in Galashiels
The council’s decision followed the collapse of its 24-year contract with New Earth Solutions in 2015, which had been scheduled to build a waste gasification plant at the Galashiels site.
However, responding to the council’s consultation in a letter published on Thursday (2 March), SEPA has objected to the proposal on the grounds of ‘a lack of information’.
The regulator has advised the council it will review its recommendation only when questions surrounding drainage, noise, and odour management at the plant had been addressed.
In the letter, SEPA said the assessment ‘does not appear to have taken into account the noise from reversing vehicles’ and that odour modelling ‘was very uncertain due to its subjective nature’.
Drainage
SEPA goes on to add the proposed drainage arrangements are ‘not in line’ with acceptable practice. The site is located close to the River Tweed.
The letter notes: “This information is necessary to inform the planning application and to ensure that any development given planning permission sets a physical framework for operations which can be authorised by SEPA under separate regulatory regimes.
“We also advise the applicants to provide additional information to demonstrate that this site is free of flood risk and that developing this site, as proposed, will not lead to increased flood risk elsewhere.”
Scottish Borders
Time is running out for Scottish Borders council to implement alternative treatment arrangements for the estimated 40,000 tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year, with its local sites forecast to reach full capacity by 2018 (see letsrecycle.com story).
An artist’s impression of the New Earth gasification facility in Galashiels, which was scrapped in 2015
The waste transfer station had been recommended because it allows the council time to revise its Waste Management Strategy.
An option to build its own treatment facility to replace the New Earth project was rejected, due to the time it would take to design, procure and construct a plant while also complying with Scotland’s ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2021.
In its full pre-application consultation report, the council describes the station will be designed so it can be adapted to future deals, which might include on-site processing, waste stockpiling and transfer.
The council’s submission document for the application notes that the ‘principal function’ of the development will be to provide storage for waste materials until they can be taken ‘to landfill or recycling centres elsewhere’.
Commenting on SEPA’s letter, a Scottish Borders council spokesperson said: “The project team is in discussions with the council’s planning department and SEPA to mitigate the observations raised by the agency in their report.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
