Jul 17 2007
Local authorities in Devon have become embroiled in a row over proposals for a new incinerator in Exeter.
Councillors in Exeter are meeting today to discuss their concerns that Devon county council's intention to build an energy-from-waste facility on the Marsh Barton Industrial estate, south of the city, risks wasting 10MW of the 16MW of energy produced.
Exeter city council believes only 6MW of energy from the plant, which is being designed to be combined heat and power, will be used. "Use of the remaining 10MW is not secured in any way. Reliance is placed on the goodwill of the operator," the council said ahead of today's meeting.
The city council said its concerns, which first arose from its planning committee, are likely to be ignored by the county council in its consideration of the project scheduled for July 20.
Exeter council's leader Cllr Pete Edwards said: "Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the world today and we believe that as the proposals stand, the county council are not ensuring that the full potential of this plant is harnessed. To allow the largest part of the energy potential from the plant to be wasted is completely unacceptable."
In denouncing the project, Cllr Connel Boyle, lead councillor for the environment and leisure raised his concerns about dioxin emissions. The city council has claimed that waste incinerators in the UK account for "80% of dioxin emissions in the UK (from regulated emissions)", and therefore needed to be monitored more closely. By comparison, Defra's health report of May 2004 said "dealing with municipal solid waste accounts for only about 1% of UK emissions of dioxins".
A spokesperson for Devon county council declined to comment before the planning application went to development control, but said: "We are aware of the city council's resolution. County councillors will be made aware of Exeter city council's views when the application is being determined."
"Incorrect"
However, Viridor Waste Management, Devon's waste management contractor and the company hoping to develop the Exeter incinerator, rejected the city council's claims. A spokesman said: "This is factually incorrect - in fact it is an indefensible thing to say in technical terms."
The waste firm said that, while the plant has a thermal capacity of 16.3MW, this was not equivalent to the overall amount of energy it will create.
The spokesman for the company explained that the boiler could only recover 12MW, and of this it took 9MW of heat to generate just over 3MW of electricity, with the remaining 3MW available as heat to customers on the industrial estate.
A spokesman said: "You cannot add together heat and electricity on a one-to-one basis. To say that 10MW of heat is not secured in any way is nonsensical. It has no origin in fact."
Concerning Exeter's claims about dioxin emissions, Viridor said it was "disappointed" the city council was putting such information into the public domain "without any verification".
"These and other issues are addressed in detail in the planning application and the proposals, developed after wide consultation and in line with best practise across Europe, present a safe and common-sense waste management solution to support recycling and landfill diversion in Exeter," the Viridor spokesman added.
Source: http://www.letsrecycle.com