Stobart Biomass forced to control waste wood dust

Since January 2011, the company has been using the port in East Sussex to export large quantities of waste wood to Scandinavia for use in producing power. But, last summer, local residents and businesses in nearby Portslade began to complain of wood dust being blown from the Port in their direction.

It was a problem every other week for 2-3 months from September to November, depending on the wind direction, explained Kevin Button, director of local electroplating firm The London & Brighton Plating Co Ltd.

It was like having very soggy Weetabix spread over everything outside, and like Weetabix it was impossible to get off once it had dried.

The Stobart Biomass site was at the time operating under a low risk waste position, meaning that it was not subject to strict controls. However, following the complaints, the Environment Agency ensured that dust control measures were introduced. Around 40,000 has now been spent on installing a sprinkler system, longer wall and netting to protect waste wood piles from wind. Waste wood is also no longer piled higher than the height of the wall and it is not loaded onto ships during periods of high wind.

Stobart Biomass has also been required to apply for a standard rules permit, which, if approved, means the site will be more closely regulated.

Complaints

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said: Stobart Biomass’ Shoreham operation was operating under the low risk waste position, however, in response to complaints by members of the community, in December the Environment Agency ensured that Stobart Biomass implemented new dust control measures.

Stobart Biomass has applied for a standard rules permit to operate the facility.The standard rules permit may include the requirement for an emissions management plan, should the Environment Agency require one. The determination date for the permit is January 15 2012.

Problem

When contacted by letsrecycle,com, biomass manager at Stobart Biomass, Charlie Jones, declined to comment, indicating that he was not comfortable to respond to questions about Shoreham because the situation there was not yet fully resolved.

The Shoreham Port Authority, which loads waste wood onto ships on behalf of Stobart Biomass and has been working with Stobart to tackle the dust, said that the company and the Port had gone out of their way to tackle the problem.

Shoreham Port development director Peter Davies said: Over the last few months we have both improved the site to make it a much better operation to reduce dust. The rain recently had literally dampened down the situation but we think we have all the procedures and policies in place so when we get back into dryer weather we wont cause a nuisance.

Mr Davies said the experience had been something of a learning curve for both parties as waste wood biomass was a relatively new product. But, he claimed the Port and Stobart Biomass had got on top of the situation and allayed peoples fears that the waste wood may be hazardous.

We have done an analysis of what is in the wood poles and it has come back this week as non hazardous, so we think we have knocked that on the head, he said.

Brighton and Hove city council, which has been working alongside the Environment Agency, Adur district council, Health Protection Agency and Health and Safety Executive to tackle the problem, told letsrecycle.com that since November 2011, no further complaints about dust had been received.

Situation

However, despite these assurances, Mr Button claimed that the only reason there had not been recent problems was because no waste wood had been treated at the site over the Christmas period.

And, he claimed the new dust control measures did not go far enough and called for the whole waste wood site to be enclosed. He acknowledged that the waste wood was not hazardous but raised concerns that it was still not healthy to breathe in.

We are regulated by the Environment Agency ourselves and are monitoring our own staff for air borne nickel and chrome particles. We are well aware of the risks associated with these but it is not clear what the situation is with waste wood dust, he said.

My opinion is that the whole thing should be enclosed. I dont think the current measures are satisfactory.