The view from the UK

Here, Neil Jaques takes a look across the pond at how a major utility worked with environmental consultants, local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure environmental concerns were properly addressed.

Situated where the River Usk and the Severn Estuary meet, and with four designated European wildlife areas in close proximity, the area surrounding Severn Power’s proposed 800MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) is positively brimming with life. In comparison, the precise spot on which the structure is due to stand – in the space where the Uskmouth A coal-fired power station used to stand, and next to the still operating Uskmouth Power – is a fallow, ashen wasteland.

A procession of oversized dump trucks is transporting what appears to be a mixture of brittle rock, charcoal and ash from a gigantic pile at Uskmouth A’s resting place to another pile of similar magnitude a few hundred yards down a dirt track. Following a flurry of communicative hand gestures, the material is unloaded and a series of steamrollers and diggers proceed to engage in some sort of deliberate, and impressively delicate, sculpting exercise.

As I’m driven towards it all to take a closer look, Roderick Ellison, an environmental project manager from the RSK Group, gives me the low-down.

Back in 1999, the Environment Agency (EA) and Newport County Council (formerly Newport County Borough Council) granted then site-owner AES Fifoots Point Ltd permission to fill the basement of the decommissioned Uskmouth A power station with approximately 250,000 tonnes of combustion produced pulverized fly-ash (PFA). This was subsequently followed by the demolition of Uskmouth A’s two chimneys into its basement. Everything was duly classified as ‘infill’ and no waste management licence was required.

Production issues

What the EA did not permit, however, was any substantial above ground PFA deposits – of which, by the time AES went into receivership in 2002, there was almost 150,000m3 tonnes. When Carron Energy, Severn Power’s parent company, purchased the site in 2004, it had to act promptly, properly and creatively.

Battling near-gale force winds, Severn Power project manager Peter Trussler gamely conducts a brief guided tour of PFA pile no.2. The risks involved in dealing with the waste, he says, were well worth taking. The region is short of power and somebody’s got to supply it. “A nearby steelworks has already reduced production because they can’t get enough power and there are other major factories around here that are heading the same way. Eventually, the shortage will impede the whole area’s growth,” he says, holding on to his hard hat.

Employing RSK as its environmental advisor, Severn Power set about bringing the site back to use. To date, RSK’s environmental assessments for both the construction of the power station and the PFA mound have successfully passed through the rigorous bureaucratic obstacle course that leads to planning permission. Whenever called upon, the company has also carried out a series of auxiliary noise surveys, geotechnical site investigations and ecological surveys. It is currently in the process of drafting two additional environmental statements for the gas pipeline system needed to supply the finished power station.

Environmental challenges

The biggest single challenge to date – though there will be others before energy production begins in 2010 – has undoubtedly been in planning how to deal with the PFA in an environmentally appropriate manner.

Despite having a utilitarian use for activities such as grouting, production of PFA typically exceeds demand and much of it ends up as landfill. The latter option was particularly unattractive to Severn Power, as it would have necessitated a fleet of CO2-emitting trucks trundling through the local village. “We spent over a year discussing the options with the Environmental Agency and it was agreed that moving the ash off-site was a ridiculous exercise and that sending it to landfill would be both extremely expensive and environmentally unsound,” explains Trussler.

RSK’s solution was to devise a land restoration scheme whereby the PFA is reused on site under a waste exemption licence to create an environmentally benign landscape feature. Not only will it act as a visual and acoustic screen for the finished power station, but it will also enhance local biodiversity.

Given the project’s location, it is unsurprising to learn that gaining approval for such a venture called for some exhaustive stakeholder consultation. Throughout the process, Severn Power opted for a policy of complete transparency, actively engaging all the relevant statutory bodies (among them Gwent Wildlife Trust, the Environment Agency and the Countryside Council for Wales – the owners of the adjacent wetlands), as well as other interested parties and the general public.

“The consultation process has progressed well. It has been a tortuous route at times, but we’ve got to the point where we’ve got full planning permission for both the mound and the power station,” says a relieved Trussler, having reconvened the interview to the shelter of Severn Power’s offices.

“We’ve engaged the stakeholders to such an extent that we’re now on first name terms with many of the regulators, which is indicative of the trust we’ve been given,” adds Ellison. “With Carron Energy planning additional projects in the region, such relationships are fundamental: if we make a mistake on day one, nothing else will ever go through because of the nature of the area.”

Getting the design right

In charting the environmental impacts of the PFA project, RSK initiated a series of site-based investigations and desk-based studies that included air quality, noise, ecology, cultural heritage, landscape and visual impact, traffic and transport, cumulative impact and environmental management. From these, RSK determined the mitigation measures required to make the landscape feature a reality.

First and foremost, it was crucial to get the design right, as Senior RSK Landscape Consultant Chris Frain explained to me later. “Although it will be an incongruous feature in a relatively flat area, it really is designed to fit in with its surroundings. It will be covered by a grassland species that reflects the ecological status of the wetland areas and will ultimately stimulate biodiversity – which is great because at the moment there is nothing to shout about in that sense here.”

Indeed, surveys carried out by RSK’s Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management certified ecologists noted that although species such as bats and great crested newts were in evidence, the site was unsuitable for any permanent habitats. Once the land restoration project is complete, however, that is likely to change – not just for those species, but also for the abundant birds and reptiles in the area.

One of the main environmental concerns associated with the mound is to ensure that any contaminated water run-off does not seep into the Severn Estuary from the west of the site and via a drainage ditch to the south. RSK overcame this issue by installing an innovative Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS), whereby run-off passes through a reed-bed that allows silt to settle before discharge and which facilitates contaminant attenuation.

On a broader level, the project’s overall environmental performance is kept in check by a strict site environmental management plan (SEMP), which offers guidance on everything from noise and vibration to air quality and traffic management. Through contractual agreements, every site worker must conform to its tenets, a process that is enforced by continual environmental monitoring by a dedicated liaison officer, and a comprehensive training program.

The value of trust

Trussler is keen to emphasise the role that good environmental negotiation and performance has played in getting the project to its current stage. “RSK has been doing a great job,” he says. “As far as I can see, we’ve really fast-tracked our Section 36 [of the 1989 Electricity Act, for developments over 50MW] application and, compared to other projects of a similar nature, we’ve done very well.”

Ellison too is full of praise for the way Severn Power has placed its trust in RSK’s ability to manage the environmental issues and points out that this level of support is vital if projects such as this are to progress through the planning process without hitches.
“Severn Power is a really good client that is willing to invest properly in the surveys that matter,” he says. “They understand why you have to spend money upfront to reap the benefits in the long term, so they give us the resources we require to execute the project in an environmentally sustainable way.”

Nevertheless, much remains to be done, not least finishing the environmental statements for the pipeline system. Trussler, meanwhile, is also presiding over the tendering process for the power stations’ engineering, procurement and construction of the power station. “It’s been a lot of very hard work, but the amount of power we will bring to the region will make it all worthwhile,” he says.