Week one of the Planning Inquiries, into the proposal by the Department of Local Government & the Environment to develop a landfill at Archallagan, and by Colas Ltd to either dispose of incinerator bottom ash (IBA) or to process and store it at Turkeylands, has concluded with a third application now being added to the list of applications for consideration.

Cemex, Island Aggregates’ application appears to have been accepted as a live application and ‘called-in’ for determination by the Council of Ministers – although no formal notice of this has been received by all parties.

The week commenced with the usual arguments over procedure, possible bias in the decision making process, disclosure and acceptance of various documents and who would be appearing at the Inquiry.

The Independent Inspector, Mr Ward, added that, in respect of the DLGE application, he had difficulty in teasing out the application from the Environmental Statement and requested that he be provided with a schedule of the application’s plans.

Once the main proceedings got under way, Mr Morris, Advocate representing the DLGE, explained why the DLGE was back with a revised application, (the previous approval having been fatally holed below the waterline by a noise condition that the DLGE knew it wouldn’t be able to meet), what the new proposal entailed and “that the evidence brought forward will demonstrate that there is no reason whatsoever for this application not to be supported and granted.”

The first witness called was Deputy Chief Executive of the DLGE, Mrs Yvette Mellor, who probably didn’t anticipate, at that point, still being cross-examined on her evidence a day and a half later!

It soon became apparent that the DLGE has decided ‘things have moved on’ from when the application was first lodged, in May 2007, and the Department is now planning more for ‘contingency waste disposal capacity’ rather than a site for, substantially, the disposal of IBA.

As could probably have been foreseen, DLGE’s waste arising figures were challenged, forcing Mrs Mellor to agree to provide further evidence to support the revised projected figures for waste to be deposited at the site.

This mostly related to the amount of asbestos contaminated waste, and other ‘difficult’ construction and demolition wastes that would arise from the proposed redevelopment of old Nobles and other sites; and that had no other approved disposal routes on the Island.

The issue of the disposal of IBA became quite heated at times, with Mrs Mellor claiming that legal advice had been received that said that the contract with SITA (the incinerator operator and ‘owner’ of the IBA) only allowed for the disposal (i.e. landfilling) of IBA by the DLGE and not the storage or processing of it as proposed in the Colas application.

“Bottom Ash will go to Archallagan for disposal if the application is successful” insisted Mrs Mellor, under cross-examinaion by Karen Dalgleish, representing Colas; and added that their is an urgent need to get Archallagan up and running as the existing arrangement to dispose of it at old Turkeylands is due to come to an end in May 2008.

Mrs Mellor admitted that in respect of municipal solid waste, one of the contingency wastes, no other site had been considered other than Archallagan for ‘storing’ it whilst the incinerator was out of use.

In fact it later became clear that COMIN and the DLGE had agreed that one landfill for all waste types was the best option.

(One can’t fail to recall that the DHPP/DOT’s originally decided to plump for one central treatment plant for the Island’s sewage. However, a few years down the line they have accepted ‘things have moved on’ - technology has improved, costs have risen, and that one plant is no longer the best option.)

When Neil Penhall, the Managing Director of SLR Consulting, the DLGE’s led consultants, took the stand, some time later, he admitted that a number of sites could be found to dispose of foot & mouth carcasses, another contingency waste; and, after some pressing, that other sites could probably be equally designed to safely accept the same wastes proposed for Archallagan.

An issue arose during the Friday session that appeared not to have been fully considered by the DLGE or their consultants, that of cover material to cap the waste. It was conceded by Mr Penhall, under questioning from Mr Ward, that the waste types proposed for depositing at the site didn’t make suitable capping material and that large quantities of other material will be required – and it would probably need to be sourced from off-site. This may then entail, said Mr Ward, a variation to the waste types, or new material, being delivered to the site towards the end of its life; and he wondered whether any consideration had been given to where it would come from.

Colas’ expert witness on leachate Management, Keith Knox, made a good job of undermining the DLGE’s evidence on this subject, but as the DLGE’s own witness on Hydrogeology and Hydrology, Dr Alan Edwards, had already admitted that the lining to the site is expected to leak – this seemed almost like rubbing salt into the wounds.