Waste park offers many attractions
Wednesday 18th August 2010, 2:29PM BST.
ONE of the attractions of the proposed waste park that we featured in yesterday’s edition is that it attempts to pull together all the elements of the island’s refuse problems and deal with them using a one-stop shop-type solution.
In particular, the recommendation that a pipeline be run from the Red Lion to Longue Hougue so that Guernsey’s sewage can be treated properly rather than discharged into the Little Russel seems particularly inspired.
According to the scheme’s proposers, they can provide the facility for about the same price as the abandoned Suez incinerator, which would effectively make the sewage disposal side of things a ‘free’ bolt-on.
There are other attractions to the waste park, including a purpose-built abattoir, the ability for existing local businesses to link to the park’s operation and flexibility of funding so that it could become a public-private partnership.
It also promises to have a significantly cheaper gate price for refuse disposal than the Suez proposal and would be a local solution for a local problem without the profit from its operation being siphoned off to a foreign company.
So is it all too good to be true?
At this stage, it’s simply too early to say. There is a vast amount of detail to be worked up and technologies to be explored – but it has excited the interest of hard-headed business investors who are keen to back worthwhile local infrastructure projects.
That interest will not have been expressed on the evidence of back-of-the-envelope doodling and many months of research and work has gone into getting the waste park proposals to the point that the backers believed they were ready to present to Public Services.
What may be the biggest sell, however, is changing the attitude of the department.
There was evidence before that nothing but a Suez-type incinerator would do, a heavily engineered solution guaranteed to work, but at a price.
The waste park is in a different league and will come with a different risk profile from anything else considered.
The fear is that won’t appeal to the previously displayed mind-set of PSD, no matter how good the scheme is.
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Seems well thought out on first reading but then?
Incinerator down here again.
Like its ok to to poison people if they are only from the North.
Def nimby re this plan.
Fort field would be a good spot for a burner, well above sea level and mostly dropping its pollution over the ocean.
Ok on a still day it might poison Fort George semi residents. But eh who would care about that?
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If we are going to burn any waste, we need to get power or heat from it. If not it’s going to be as environmentally damaging as the Suez proposal in the end.
Incidentally, I wish people would listen to our civil servants in PSD, who are trained engineers as opposed to un-trained tree-huggers, politicians and the general population. These people are trained and have decades of experience in making informed, educated and balanced decisions about exactly these type of projects. Your friendly eco-terrorist on the other hand is extremely one-sided and often not in possession of the correct & full facts. The fact that our ‘educated’, respected politicians do not respect or listen to their views and think that know better is utterly unbelievable….Would you ask your local deputy to give you a second opinion about a heart condition following a consultation with your surgeon…I think not.
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I have looked at the Billborough plans and the micro-incineration element is planned to burn the sewage sludge as well as the small element of residual waste that is left after everything that can be recycled is taken out. The energy generated would go towards running the site and the heat would be used to accelerate the composting element. Being ‘micro incinerators’ would also mean that they could be as small as 5,000 tonnes….. times 2 would give lots of flexibility. So although incineration is NOT desirable, this form would be infinitely better than Suez.
Funny that the PSD civil servants were pushing hard for Suez, Young Guern’ which didn’t plan to use the heat and would therefore, as you yourself say, have been more environmentally damaging. Probably just as well we didn’t just listen to them then, don’t you think?
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Lorre, you wrote “Ok on a still day it might poison Fort George semi residents.”
You might wish to consider the PEH incinerator.
Young Guern, the civil service exists to serve the community. The politicians direct them after deliberation. There are many highly qualified waste engineers off the island and a few highly qualified individuals on the island who determined that the States of Guernsey would be foolish to adopt the Suez proposal both from a cost and an environmental point-of-view. People who want the best for the island usually consult experts to form their opinion. There were many highly qualified people against the Suez proposal for legitimate reasons.
Projects do go wrong. It is good that there are people who care enough about our community to raise awareness of the issues and express their concerns about proposals. Also, it is good that the States of Guernsey provides opportunity for the public to express their views.
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