The Jersey Electricity Company's Chimney at La Collette.
(Photo by Dan Marsh)
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The La Collette JEC chimney is unregulated which means that
the JEC can and does discharge soot and exhaust gases without
regulation. Jersey's new incinerator (officially called the
Energy from Waste Plant) also uses this chimney via two new
flues which run horizontally from the plant and then into
and up the chimney used by the JEC (see pic below). These two flues are strictly
regulated, and all APB's, or 'fly ash' must be filtered and
collected and kept from release into the atmosphere, and all
emissions must be lower than EU current standards. So we have
one chimney with two sets of regulations.
Mr. D. Padfield, Operations Director of the Jersey Electricity
Company, giving evidence in the Environmental Scrutiny Hearings
of 26th May 2009, confirmed that the JEC chimney emits S.O.x
& N.O.x plus soot and CO2 and water vapour. He confirmed
that on start up the stacks emit soot and until recently the
JEC received hundreds of complaints a year. Mr. Padfield
said: "Unfortunately when we run an appliance
cold from start-up, there will inherently be some soot, if
I can call it that, within the flue that we will discharge
for the first hour or so while we bring everything up to speed.
We have and we continue to try and sweep the chimneys after
major periods of production, after every winter, but we just
cannot get everything out. There is a facility at the bottom
of the chimneys to go in and effectively shovel this stuff
away given the right protection and equipment and everything
else, but it is always there on start-up and run-down."
The emissions from the two flues from the incinerator are
strictly monitored and results are expected soon to be released
on a regular basis as promised by T&TS (Transport and Technical
Services). We have seen the initial trial measurements which
fall within the EU regulations. It is hard to see how a situation
where the emissions released into the atmosphere from one
chimney from several flues serving two installations, each
with different regulations can be considered as acceptable?
And the situation of one chimney being 'half regulated' is
peculiar if not unique? The burning question in our minds is just how are
the authorities proposing to regulate or prevent the mixing of these emissions?
We are not simply looking at one set of emissions, they have now created a cocktail effect.
As mandated by the Council of Environmental Ministers in December
2009, the European Union Commission is starting to look at
how to address the daily reality of our exposure to mixtures
of chemicals. The Council asked the European Commission to
look at how EU law and policy addresses the risks from exposure
to combinations of chemicals. The Commission must report back
to Council by the early 2012 on what might be necessary legal
changes, guidelines and ways to assess the risks from the
so-called ‘cocktail effect.
The current Environment Minister
Deputy Rob Duhamel indicated to SOS last July that he would
ensure that the JEC chimney was fully regulated by the end of 2011.
We await to hear what progress he has made. |
