Incinerators

HC Deb 06 March 2002 vol 381 cc358-60W

Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the waste-burning incinerators that are being used in the Greater London area. [37263]

Mr. Meacher

The table details the waste incinerators currently regulated by the Environment Agency in the Greater London area.

Company	Location	Incinerator type
Johnson Matthey	Enfield	Chemical waste
Clinical Energy	Hillingdon	Clinical waste
London Waste Ltd.	Edmonton	Municipal waste
Thames Water	Beckton	Sewage sludge
SELCHP	Deptford	Municipal waste
Thames Water	Crossness	Sewage sludge
Reichhold (UK) Ltd.	Mitcham	Process water from polymerisation process

Smaller facilities are regulated by local authorities. Each year my Department surveys the 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London seeking information on the number of incinerators they regulate. 27 authorities responded this year. In total, these 27 authorities regulated 20 crematoria and five other waste incinerators. Rounded up to the 33 authorities, this relates to 23 crematoria and six other incinerators.

Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she is taking to(a) monitor and (b) reduce harmful emissions from municipal incinerators. [39212]

Margaret Beckett

[holding answer 28 February 2002]: Emission standards apply throughout the EU to municipal solid waste incineration facilities (MSWI's), both old and new. Enforcement action will be considered where monitoring reveals breaches of these standards.

MSWI's are required to operate in accordance with best available techniques (BAT). The Environment Agency provides guidance to operators on how to achieve this. This identifies requirements for incinerators' design and operation. To ensure effective destruction of pollutants; residence time, temperature and turbulence are strictly controlled. The Agency is currently updating this guidance and I understand that an early consultation draft has also been placed on the Agency's website.

Additionally the Environment Agency has recently varied the authorisations for existing MSWI's to reduce the dioxin emission limit to 0.1 ng/m³.

We are currently transposing the new waste incineration directive, which will further tighten emissions standards. The older generation of incinerators has now been replaced with newer, cleaner technology, and most municipal waste incinerators in this country already meet the tough standards that will be introduced with the new directive. Incinerator emissions of all air pollutants are now less than 1.5 per cent. of total UK emissions.

Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the frequency and methodology of sampling for dioxin emissions at the SELCHP incinerator. [38829]

Margaret Beckett

[holding answer 28 February 2002]: Dioxin emissions from SELCHP are regularly monitored by the operators on a six-monthly basis to check compliance with the EU-wide emission standards.

Additionally, the Environment Agency carries out independent check monitoring at a minimum frequency of once per year. All monitoring results, including those carried out by the operators, are available on public registers held at the offices listed.

The emissions monitoring methodology is based on US Environmental Protection Agency Method 23. This requires samples to be taken over a period of six to eight hours, at a variety of locations in the stack. Samples are then removed for laboratory analysis using sophisticated and time consuming techniques.

Public registers containing monitoring results for SELCHP are available at:

• London Borough of Lewisham Laurence House
• 1 Catford Road
• Catford

and

• The Environment Agency Swift House
• Frimley Business Park Frimley
• Surrey.

Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the level of dioxin emissions from the SELCHP incinerator. [38826]

Margaret Beckett

[holding answer 28 February 2002]: Dioxin emissions have been regularly monitored at SELCHP for the last eight years, both by the operator and by the Environment Agency, to check compliance with EU-wide emission standards. Level of dioxins monitored at SELCHP over the last four years are given in the table:

Reporting period	Dioxin level at stack 1 ng/m 3	Dioxin level at stack 2 ng/m3	Monitoring body
November 2001	0.031	0.008	EA
September 2001	0.003	0.008	SELCHP
April 2001	0.015	0.012	SELCHP
January 2001	0.06	0.14	SELCHP
November 2000	0.01	0.0098	EA
September 2000	0.025	0.034	SELCHP
March 2000	0.008	0.009	SELCHP
September 1999	less than 0.01	less than 0.01	SELCHP
April 1999	0.005	0.005	SELCHP
October 1998	0.005	0.005	SELCHP
September 1998	0.007	less than 0.01	SELCHP
March 1998	0.0	0.01	SELCHP
December 1997	0.01	0.02	EA
September 1997	0.02	0.01	SELCHP

The dioxin emission limit for SELCHP was reduced from 1.0 ng/m³ to 0.1 ng/m³ in October 2000.

The result recorded for Stack 2 for January 2001 is numerically above this limit, although the inherent uncertainty of measurement at these very low levels is such that the true concentration cannot confidently be said to be above the limit. Nevertheless, in view of this uncharacteristic result, the Environment Agency required further monitoring which was carried out in April 2001 as shown in the table above. A note was placed on the public register stating, for the January 2001 results: The reported results for dioxins on stream two are shown to be slightly in excess of the recently reduced limit of 0.1 ng/m³. In view of the uncertainty reported for this result, the exceedance is not considered as a breach of emission limits. Retests are being carried out this will be discussed with the operator.

Public registers containing monitoring results for SELCHP are available at:

• London Borough of Lewisham
• Laurence House
• 1 Catford Road
• Catford

and

• The Environment Agency
• Swift House
• Frimley Business Park
• Frimley
• Surrey.