BATTLE lines are being drawn up to
stop a firm dumping waste in disused
anhydrite mines running below a
town.
Patrick Jenkin, Margaret Thatcher's
Environment Secretary in 1985,
gave Billingham, near Stockton, an
assurance that nuclear waste would
not be tipped in the exhausted underground
workings below the town,
following a community battle.
Now, more than 20 years on, Glasgow-
based NPL Estates wants to bury
inert incinerator waste in the mines.
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Jim Vaughan, a former member of
the group Band (Billingham Against
Nuclear Dumping), which spearheaded
the successful Eighties campaign
to stop the mines being used,
said last night there would have to be
stringent controls to ensure anything
buried in the mines was incinerator
waste.
But Prospective Labour Parliamentary
candidate for Stockton
North, Alex Cunningham, a member
of Stockton Borough Council's cabinet,
fears NPL's move could be the
"thin end of the wedge".
He said: "They could then follow
that up with a series of applications
to dump other wastes."
More than 3,400 people have signed
a petition protesting against the plan.
The company wants to dump ash,
builders' rubble and computer
screens in the mines and insists any
waste operations would be safe.
However, a Tees Valley strategy
framework document advises "a more
sustainable approach to the management
of the waste" would be a
site in nearby Port Clarence - not the
mines.
NPL has sent leaflets to 4,000 houses
sitting above the old workings,
promising not to store waste immediately
below their homes.
But Councillor Cunningham said:
"I don't think this will make any difference
to the people of Billingham.
"Their principal worry is that once
the mine is reopened, it could be used
for anything. And I will be continuing
to campaign against the use of
the mine."
NPL managing director Simon
Towers said the firm had listened to
residents. "We have identified an
area for disposal that isn't under residential
areas. The source of all the
waste entering the mine would be
known and recorded, it would be tested
on-site and stored in special conditions
under licence from the Environment
Agency," he said.
He said waste dumped in the mine
could generate £300,000 a year in
landfill tax, to be spent locally.
Posted by: PaulC, Billingham on 8:14pm Tue 22 Apr 08
Do not allow this scheme to go ahead. If all that the company wants to bury is inert waste, they can do that at less cost in a landfill. It will cost more to take the waste down a shaft and then transport it along tunnels rather than tip it out of the back of a wagon. Sites for hazardous waste are few and far between-hence the interest in the mine. Once permission is given,it would be very tempting. Vote no.
Do not allow this scheme to go ahead. If all that the company wants to bury is inert waste, they can do that at less cost in a landfill. It will cost more to take the waste down a shaft and then transport it along tunnels rather than tip it out of the back of a wagon. Sites for hazardous waste are few and far between-hence the interest in the mine. Once permission is given,it would be very tempting. Vote no.
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