The chimney is being repaired on a rough and ready basis to keep ticking over, but is way past its sell by date, and is falling apart. From people who work there, I know that it is almost past being "on its last legs".
If the debate on what kind of incinerator had taken place 5 years ago, there would have been a breathing space. Now there is none.
It is a time to forget debates about what might be environmentally friendly, because a new incinerator would not come online until probably around 3 years from now if we were lucky.
Do we really want three years of accumulated waste having to be dumped at La Collette (with all the pollution and smells that will come with it)? Do we want a breeding ground for rats? Because if we don't get a new incinerator soon, that is what we will have. Would that be environmentally friendly?
And although agreed, the tendering process now begins. After that, there has to be another States debate. More delays! And time is running out...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/5125564.stm
A new £60m waste incinerator is be built at La Collette in Jersey, States members have decided.
The plant will replace an ageing incinerator at Bellozane and be cheaper and greener, Transport and Technical Services said.
The plans were approved on Wednesday with 32 members in favour, 13 against and one abstention.
The project will now be put out to tender and the States will have the final say on the project size and cost.
Several companies have expressed an interest in the tender.
'Makes sense'
Concerns have been raised in the past about a plant's impact on the skyline of the south coast, the extra traffic it could bring and the lack of a plan for the La Collette area as a whole.
Guy de Faye, Minister for Transport and Technical Services, said: "The waste plant is not just an incinerator. It's doing something else as well.
"It does makes an awful lot of sense to locate something that is effectively an industrial electric power plant next to an existing industrial electricity power plant such as the JEC.
"The ability to do that is very easy at La Collette. Up at Bellozane we would have to pay a very substantial amount of money to put in new cabling."
Wednesday, 28 June 2006
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4 comments:
Nobody is claiming that we should not have a new system to deal with our waste resources ASAP - just that an incinerator would be a mind bogglingly stupid, short-sighted choice to make. The alternatives - smaller, cheaper, more flexible and ultimately far more environmentally sustainable have been put forward for years and TTS are still stonewalling any arguments against their favoured choice with the use of press releases chock full of astonishingly consistent propaganda
look at my articles on Radio Jersey
http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2008/05/28/sc_waste_nickpalmer_p1_feature.shtml
and http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2008/05/28/sc_waste_nickpalmer_p2_feature.shtml
When the ship's been holed, and sinking, it is an act of stupidy to say that we will have a meeting to discuss the optimum evacuation strategy. I think the position with our incinerator is perilously close to that.
Nobody is claiming that we do not need a replacement system for the incinerator ASAP, just that TTS' favoured option is plain stupid. The alternatives have been put forward for years. They would be smaller, cheaper, more efficient and ultimately far more environmentally sustainable than a new incinerator (which would only make any kind of sense whatsoever if one is just looking at the next five years or so). Any replacement will be around for 30 years during which there will be such huge changes that a mistakenly commissioned replacement incinerator would be rendered completely useless...
See my two articles for Radio Jersey
http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2008/05/28/sc_waste_nickpalmer_p1_feature.shtml
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2008/05/28/sc_waste_nickpalmer_p2_feature.shtml
"I think the position with our incinerator is perilously close to that"
Well, if it is, it's because of the lack of maintenance. This current story about acid damage inside the chimney is more propaganda. I can assure you that the interior of the chimney has been full of acid since, at least, the mid to late 90's. I know because I have climbed up inside it to the top, with an engineer. I noticed that the rockwool type insulation surrounding the three internal brick built chimneys was saturated in a viscous, highly acidic, liquid and the internal steel work and concrete was very deteriorated then 10 years ago. Public Services actually had to pay to repaint my house because the dissolving steel work generated a sticky, acidic rusty fluid that blew onto my walls and stained them. This acid is caused because they have no acid gas cleaning equipment on that incinerator
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