Rob Edwards

Plans for massive expansion of opencast coal

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2013

Private companies are planning a massive expansion of opencast coal mining in Scotland, according to information released by the UK government’s Coal Authority.

As many as 21 developments are being proposed across the central belt and in the south to dig out more than 37 tonnes of coal. Many are extensions of existing mines, but some are major new sites.

The largest proposal is by Scottish Coal for Cauldhall in Midlothian, which is believed to contain as much as 10 million tonnes of coal. According to campaigners, this is going to run into major opposition.

More opencast mining is also planned for East Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, the Lothians, Falkirk and the Scottish Borders (see table below). The coal industry says it must expand to survive because existing mines are nearing exhaustion.

But the protest group, Coal Action Scotland, argues that coal is a dying industry that is wrecking the climate and destroying local communities. The industry is facing financial difficulties, it says, which cast doubt on its ability to keep its promises of restoration.

One coal company, ATH Resources, went into administration in December. The biggest, Scottish Coal, has had to shed staff, cut wages and mothball a site.

Green light for plan to drain loch to mine coal

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2013 

A controversial plan to drain an entire loch to make way for an opencast coal mine has been given the go-ahead by the Scottish government’s green watchdog, despite advice from its own experts that it would damage the environment.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has approved a scheme by Scottish Coal to empty Loch Fitty, near Dunfermline in Fife, and dig up 3.4 million tonnes of coal from underneath its bed.

Sepa’s experts initially warned that the plan would have a negative impact on people and the water environment. But internal emails show that their advice was revised to make it more favourable to the development at the request of senior managers.

Local residents and environmental groups, appalled by the “massively destructive” plan, have now appealed to Scottish ministers to intervene and review the plan. If that fails, they are threatening to complain to the European Commission.

“This looks like a desperate attempt by Scottish Coal to generate extra profits by ripping out every last ounce of coal from beneath Fife that it can,” said Lang Banks, the new director of WWF Scotland.

“It would be wrong to drain Loch Fitty to extract additional coal, at the cost of causing environmental damage and depriving the local community of its amenity value. Scottish ministers must review this proposal with a matter of urgency.”

Secret nuclear bomb plant closed over safety fears

from The Guardian, 24 January 2013

A top-secret plant at Aldermaston that makes enriched uranium components for Britain's nuclear warheads and fuel for the Royal Navy's submarines has been shut down because corrosion has been discovered in its "structural steelwork", the Guardian can reveal.

The closure has been endorsed by safety regulators who feared the building did not conform to the appropriate standards. The nuclear safety watchdog demands such critical buildings are capable of withstanding "extreme weather and seismic events", and the plant at Aldermaston failed this test. 

They have set a deadline of the end of the year for the problems to be fixed. 

Although the closed plant has not been officially named for national security reasons, the Guardian understands it is known as A45. It makes enriched uranium parts for Trident nuclear weapons, and has recently been helping to make the uranium fuel for the Astute generation of nuclear-powered submarines.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) insisted it had contingency plans to cover the loss of the enrichment plant, but a prolonged closure could force the government to buy in materials from the US to ensure there is no disruption to Britain's nuclear weapons programme.

Crackdown on waste incinerator that breached toxic pollution limits

from Sunday Herald, 20 January 2013

Toxic pollution breaches and an explosion at a new waste incinerator have triggered tough legal action and an investigation by government safety watchdogs, upsetting plans for a dozen more waste-burning plants across Scotland.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) last week slapped an enforcement notice on Scotgen, a company that is trying to commission a pioneering “energy-from-waste” plant at Dargavel in Dumfries.

This follows an admission that the plant breached safety limits by emitting more cancer-causing dioxins than permitted into the air in October, and then failed to promptly inform Sepa. The company has been ordered to restrict the plant’s operations, and to ensure that future monitoring results are provided as soon as possible.

Scotgen is also under investigation by the Health and Safety Executive following a “pipe burst” at the Dargavel plant in August. According to a report by the company, nearby pipework and a roof were damaged by a steam explosion.

Environmental groups and local campaigners say that the plant is dangerous and are demanding that it be immediately shut down. They are also calling for plans for other waste incinerators in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Lothian, Perth, Aberdeenshire and Invergordon to be halted (see table below).

Trying to move Scotland towards zero waste

for Sunday Herald, 20 January 2013 

The way that Scotland deals with its reeking mountains of household waste has been revolutionised over the last decade. It has moved from recycling less than five per cent in 2000 to recycling over 40% in 2011.

The trouble, though, is that is not enough. In order to comply with European Union legislation and to help achieve its “zero waste" ambition, the Scottish government is aiming to recycle 50% by 2013 and 70% by 2025. 

But it is going to have difficulties fulfilling those aspirations. The more waste is recycled, the harder it becomes to recycle what’s left. Much is contaminated, and there’s a limit to the number of materials that can be reused or remade.

Research for the Scottish government in 2010 suggested that a quarter of municipal waste was incapable of being recycled or composted. So in order to avoid that being dumped in landfill sites, the idea is that it could be burnt, gasified or otherwise treated to make energy.

Hence councils and private companies have been falling over themselves in the last few years to suggest shiny, new energy-from-waste plants across the country. Local communities, however, have not been exactly welcoming. 

Local community labelled ‘vipers nest’ by salmon company

from Sunday Herald, 13 January 2013

Scotland’s £1 billion salmon farming industry is facing growing difficulties winning public support for massive expansion plans after a concerned local community was labelled a “vipers nest” in a leaked company email. 

Private emails from within the foreign-owned Scottish Salmon Company, which produces a fifth of Scotland’s farmed salmon, also reveal its public relations tactics for avoiding the “angst, time, delay, hoo-haa” caused by objections.

The company planned to locate small salmon cages on a loch and then “let the locals get used to it”, before applying to introduce larger ones in two or three years time. The aim was to avoid “lengthy, tiring, negative PR battles”.

The revelations have sparked fury amongst fish farm opponents, who accuse the company of betraying “cynical contempt” for local people by hiding their plans for future expansion. The company has hit back, however, alleging that campaigners have distorted the facts in an attempt to discredit the fish farming industry.

Farmed salmon is Scotland’s largest single food export, and one of the country’s most important rural industries. Production has risen nearly fivefold over the last decade, and now involves 30 companies at about 250 sites along the west coast and on the islands.

But its expansion has come at a cost, with local communities and environmentalists increasingly alarmed about pollution, the damage to coastal scenery and threats to wild fish. Now the industry, backed the Scottish government, wants to further boost production of all farmed fish 50% by 2020.

U-turn on naming fish farms that shoot seals

from Sunday Herald, 13 January 2013

The Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, has backtracked on her decision to force Scottish ministers to name the salmon farms that shoot seals.

In a highly unusual move, she has reopened her investigation into the issue because of new allegations from salmon netters, who also shoot seals to prevent them from eating fish. They claim to have received threats from animal welfare groups, including a death threat.

Agnew has now given ministers until the end of the month to provide hard evidence of the risks to property and people. She will then consider whether or not to enforce her decision, which originally demanded that seal-shooting salmon farms be identified by 10 January.

Her change of heart was due to the “seriousness of the concerns raised”, according to an email last week from her senior official to the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA), which had appealed for the sites to be named under freedom of information law.

Wild fish groups under investigation by charity watchdog

from Sunday Herald, 13 January 2013

A government watchdog has launched investigations into whether two of Scotland’s leading wild fish protection groups have broken charity law by collaborating with the multinational salmon farming industry.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has responded to complaints from a Highland landowner about the activities of the Wester Ross Fisheries Trust (WRFT) and the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS).

Jenny Scobie, the owner of the Rhidorroch estate near Ullapool, alleges that WRFT’s links with salmon farming companies have created a conflict of interest that has compromised its duty to protect wild fish. According to environmentalists, the caged salmon industry has damaged wild populations by spreading lice and disease.

WRFT has two representatives from salmon farming companies on its board of trustees: Henry Dalgety from the Scottish Salmon Company and Ben Hadfield from Marine Harvest. The trust’s chairman, John Mackenzie, also receives a small income from a salmon farm on his Gairloch estate.

In a second complaint, Scobie accused RAFTS of failing to conserve wild fish by taking part in a government project to identify suitable and unsuitable sites for new fish farms. “Fisheries trusts on the west coast of Scotland have been playing fast and loose with the rules for far too long,” she said.

The OSCR’s investigations suggested that something was seriously wrong, she claimed. The protection of wild fish was not being given the priority it deserved, she argued, and the WRFT had a “cosy relationship” with salmon farming companies.

In the last few weeks, Scobie has received letters from OSCR saying that there was “sufficient cause” to contact WRFT to help inform inquiries. It also promised to “look into” the issue raised about RAFTS.

Now in shops: the plastic bag that biodegrades

from Sunday Herald, 06 January 2013

Plastic bags that disintegrate safely instead of persisting and polluting the environment have been introduced by one of Britain’s leading retailers.

John Lewis department stores have started using what they say is the UK’s first biodegradable polythene packaging for millions of the household products they sell every year.

Compounds added to new bags for bed linen and school wear ensure that they break down harmlessly even if buried in landfill dumps, the company claims. The plastic will rot into water, gas and humus within 15 years, it says, compared to hundreds of years for conventional plastic bags.

Later this year John Lewis is planning to start wrapping more products in the biodegradable plastic, including its own brand of curtains. After six months, the company promises to make the technology behind the new packaging available to other retailers, so it could spread.

“Our new bags are designed to make it easier for our customers to dispose of polythene bags in a more environmentally sustainable way, helping to reduce our overall impact as a business,” said Mark Gallen, packaging design and production manager at John Lewis.

Working with suppliers he discovered that introducing a small amount of additive would enable polyethylene to degrade even in the absence of air, light or heat. He hasn’t as yet disclosed exactly what the additive is.

Row between Edinburgh and London over nuclear inspection

06 January 2013

An inspection of the Dounreay nuclear plant by the European Commission (EC) in 1993 sparked a furious row between Edinburgh and London, newly released official files reveal.

The then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Whitehall accused the Scottish Office of driving a “coach and horses” through a secret agreement limiting the scope of EC inspections.

DTI officials were suspicious that EC inspectors were trying to extend their powers to examine radioactive discharges to the environment “by the backdoor”. They urged Scottish officials to take a much tougher line with the EC, and threaten to postpone the inspection.

The EC’s demand to inspect discharge and monitoring equipment was “especially disquieting”, wrote a senior DTI official. “The conciliatory approach taken in your draft letter may be of questionable value,“ he said. “We would prefer a much stronger reply.”

Bid to gag government adviser on nuclear waste

from Sunday Herald, 06 January 2013

The Scottish Office tried to prevent a leading government radiation adviser from saying anything about contentious plans for dumping nuclear waste at Dounreay, according to an official memo from 1989.

Professor Martin Bobrow, the then chairman of the UK government’s advisory Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare), was due to speak at a public meeting near the nuclear plant in Caithness on 6 June 1989. He had been invited there by the local health board following reports by Comare on excesses of childhood cancers around nuclear sites. 

But the Scottish Office was alarmed at the prospect that he might intervene in heated arguments over whether or not to allow test-drilling for nuclear waste disposal at Dounreay. “There is really very little that I think Professor Bobrow can say on this subject without the risk of being caught up and quoted out of context,” said a memo from a Scottish Office official.

Row with Norway over Dounreay discharges

from Sunday Herald, 06 January 2013

Radioactive discharges from the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness triggered a fierce row with Norway in 1990, according to official files just released by the Scottish government.

Norwegian ministers made strong representations to the UK government, in protest at discharges that they said threatened their fishing industry. This prompted a flurry of memos within the UK government, expressing concerns that the UK wasn’t doing enough to refute the Norwegian accusations.

Malcolm Rifkind, the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland at the time, wrote to the British Ambassador in Oslo, David Ratford, agreeing that more “pre-emptive action” should be taken.

“By its very nature the subject of radioactive waste attracts biased and inaccurate media coverage, which results in the creation of widespread concern both at home and abroad,” he wrote. “We should certainly do what we can to minimise that.”

Trident submarines can’t move from Scotland to Devonport

from The Guardian, 04 January 2013

Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines cannot be moved from Scotland to the Devonport naval base in Plymouth because they do not have safety clearances to dock there.

The disclosure has huge implications for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) if Scotland votes for independence and a new government demands the withdrawal of the nuclear fleet.

The MoD has revealed that the safety arrangements for Devonport do not permit the presence of submarines carrying Trident nuclear warheads. The MoD's safety experts are not considering changing that.

The problem is that the dockyard is in a densely populated area and, if there were an accident, thousands of people would be put at risk. The worst accident scenario envisaged by the MoD would kill up to 11,000 people in Plymouth and would not meet the official criteria for what’s acceptable, according to a new report.

The Scottish government, which is run by the Scottish National Party, has said that it will eject nuclear weapons from the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde soon as possible after Scotland becomes independent. A referendum on Scottish independence is due to be held in the autumn of 2014.