Pembroke power station unlawful

18 Gorfennnaf 2011

Plans to allow a Welsh power station to use a water cooling system that would harm an internationally important marine wildlife site are unlawful and must be stopped, Friends of the Earth Cymru said today [Monday 18 July 2011], as the official consultation into the controversial proposal closes.

The environmental campaigning group is urging the Environment Agency to overturn its draft decision to allow heated - and often bleached - water from the cooling system of a gas-fired power station currently under construction at Pembroke to be pumped into a fragile and highly protected estuary.

Friends of the Earth Cymru is also calling on Welsh Government Environment Minister John Griffiths to intervene and 'call in' the decision.

The surrounding Milford Haven Waterway and adjoining coastal areas have been granted one of the highest international forms of legal protection as the Pembrokeshire Marine Special Area of Conservation. It has been estimated that millions of fish and other species will be killed or harmed if the system gets the go-ahead.

In its submission to the Environment Agency's consultation today, Friends of the Earth Cymru says the plans are unlawful because the agency failed to carry out an adequate impact assessment, which is required under the European Habitats Directive. The proposal is also strongly opposed by the Welsh Government's environmental experts, the Countryside Council for Wales.

The 'waste' heat generated by the power station is the equivalent to 40 per cent of Wales' electricity demand. Friends of the Earth Cymru is calling for the heat generated by the power station to be piped to two nearby liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals where it could be used to 're-gasify' (convert back to gas) the LNG, so it can be used in homes and buildings across the UK. A similar process takes place at the LNG power station on the Isle of Grain in Kent, where 350,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide are saved each year.

Friends of the Earth Cymru Director Gordon James said:

"The damage this cooling system would cause to Pembrokeshire's precious marine environment is completely unacceptable - if it goes ahead millions of fish and other marine species will be killed every year.

"The heat generated by this power station shouldn't be wasted - it should be pumped to nearby liquefied natural gas terminals on the Haven where it can used to produce gas for our homes and buildings.

"Industry can exist alongside Pembrokeshire's magnificent environment - but we must use the best technology and the highest standards."

Friends of the Earth Cymru's legal adviser, Peter Roderick, said:

"The Environment Agency's assessment of the power station's impact on the fragile Pembrokeshire coast is inadequate, incoherent and unlawful.

"It accepts that there will be more negative impacts on the Haven, but is trying to wriggle out of the legal consequences.

"If the Agency grants this permit, it will be a stain on its reputation in Wales for many years to come.

"Welsh Minister John Griffiths must step in to protect this precious part of Wales for future generations - if he won't, we may have to rely on the European Commission and the courts to intervene."

NOTES

1. The power station has already created considerable controversy. The European Commission is currently investigating the impact of the power station on the Pembrokeshire Marine Special Area of Conservation, following an earlier complaint by Friends of the Earth.
2. Permission to build the gas-fired power plant was originally given by the then Department of Energy and Climate Change Secretary of State Ed Miliband in February 2009 - despite objections from the Countryside Council for Wales because of the absence of an adequate habitat assessment, which is required under European law.
3. The Environment Agency gave permission for water abstraction from the protected coastal area for the power stations once-through cooling system in December 2008 - against the advice of the Countryside Council for Wales. This system means that the power station will abstract its cooling water from, and discharge (often bleached) heated water at up to 8.7 degrees centigrade above ambient temperature into the protected waterway at a scale equivalent to three times the combined average flow of the two main rivers draining into the Haven.
4. According to the Countryside Council for Wales:
   "This requirement would not be met because biological interactions would no longer be determined by inherent population dynamics and ecological processes.  Substantial mortality of typical species (impingement and entainment), changes to habitat structure and function (sedimentology, geomorphology, hydrography, water and sediment chemistry, sediment processes), and consequential changes to inter and intra species interactions.  There would be an annual entrainment (by RWE estimation) of at least 850 million to 1.3 billion juvenile fish, let alone the many other typical species present.  2.9 million crustaceans and hundreds of thousands of fish impinged.  See  "Pembroke Power - Water Resources: further information in support of CCW advice to the Environment Agency Wales"  11 June 2009. "
5. The Friends of the Earth Cymru paper, 'Sustainable Heat Around Milford Haven' shows that the heat wasted by the power station would be equivalent to 40 per cent of Wales' electricity demand.
6. Isle of Grain CHP plant generates first electricity:   EONUK Press release

Am fanylion pellach, cysylltwch â Chyfeillion y Ddaear Cymru ar 029 20229577