by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Monitoring of emissions from the Portland incinerator will be carried out by Dorset Council – if it ever gets built.
The authority will sample both what comes out of the chimney stack and along the main road from extra lorry trips to and from the site.
Council leader Nick Ireland says the move will stop the incinerator being its own ‘judge and jury’ by monitoring its own admissions.
Portland resident Giovanna Lewis said the local campaign would close at the end of the year after raising almost a quarter of a million pounds to fight the proposals.
She said both politicians and the public were turning against incineration and were unhappy with self-monitoring, especially as it allowed for no monitoring at all when incinerators were powered down and back up again, which she claimed was the worst time for “filthy emissions.”
“That’s pretty shocking and appalling, so no wonder its not monitored at that time… Dorset really needs to take care of ourselves and monitor emissions so that we know what is going on,” she told the December Dorset Council meeting.
“While business may rationalise this, it’s a whole different ball game if you live and breathe next to one,” she said.
Cllr Ireland said the council had consistently opposed the incinerator which he claimed could produce 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to more than the entire domestic heating emissions of Weymouth and Portland, or 100,000 cars.
“At roughly 30 per cent of Dorset’s emissions it would severely undermine our carbon reduction target… adding another source of emissions is incompatible with our climate commitments,” he said.
Cllr Ireland said the council would monitor near the proposed site and along the A354 which could suffer an extra 7,500 to 11,000 lorry journeys each year.
He said he would write to Powerfuel for a contribution towards the cost of the monitoring equipment.
The council leader said that the project remained at risk – with estimated construction costs at £150 to £180million and falling returns due to overcapacity and no waste contract in place for the incinerator, along with other issues.
He said on top of all that a private members bill in parliament would seek to stop the construction of all incinerators.
“I have written to all five Dorset MPs asking them to support that Bill,” he said.
