The Environment Agency has announced that it is 'minded' to give the go-ahead to a massive, polluting, and wasteful incinerator at Ocean Park in Cardiff. However it is not too late to change their minds.
Cardiff Friends of the Earth believe that this draft decision is deeply flawed as it is based on outdated and incomplete information. The evidence the Environment Agency used to reach its draft decision is flawed in several ways:
Poor air quality
The Environment Agency has failed to properly consider the incinerator's impact on air quality in the area. It looks at the impact on air quality in St Mary Street which already has poor air quality, but not into an area of Newport Road which also has poor air quality. It is also much closer to the incinerator site than St Mary Street. Many of the waste-carrying lorries are likely to be using Newport Road which will increase the pollution levels further. We want the Environment Agency to assess the affect of the waste incinerator on this area as well before they give permission for the incinerator to operate.
We think that the Environment Agency is ignoring possible cumulative impacts of air pollution on the Newport Road area, as well as in Splott, Adamsdown, Rumney, Butetown, and other areas of Cardiff. The Splott residents in particular already suffer from pollution, dust and odours from the Tremorfa Steelworks and from the Eastmoors Steelworks.
Lack of consultation
Cardiff residents have not been properly consulted on this incinerator. The Environment Agency notes that just 26 people turned up to its two public consultation sessions held last year. It has since admitted that it cannot adequately consult local residents on its decisions because of budget cuts.
However, over the last two years, hundreds of local residents have objected to the incinerator application, as have Cardiff Friends of the Earth, local Councillors and other organisations. They have taken part in locally-organised public meetings and other protests against the incinerator. Hundreds more people have signed to petitions opposing the incinerator and calling for a greener alternative.
The cancer link
The Environment Agency uses only one scientific study about the effects of waste incinerators on cancer rates. This study was inconclusive but it dismissed the effects of incinerators on cancer levels in neighbouring areas. However, there are seven newer studies, all of them show a clear link between waste incinerators and cancers such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, liver cancer and breast cancer, both in adults and in children. The Environment Agency should look into these links more deeply.
Take action
Please e-mail the Environment Agency and raise these issues with them mailto:helen.florek@environment-agency.wales.gov.uk.
Please also write to your local Councillors and AMs asking them to oppose the incinerator.