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STATES OF JERSEY
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SOLID WASTE STRATEGY (P.95/2005): AMENDMENT (P.95/2005 AMD.) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 5th July 2005 by the Health and Social Services Committee
STATES GREFFE
COMMENTS
The Amendment proposes that within 2 years, the Environment and Public Services Committee will bring to the States a feasibility study of future land based inert waste disposal sites without recourse to any further marine reclamation sites.
The Health and Social Services Committee appreciates the desire to ensure that marine reclamation is avoided wherever possible but the Committee does not support this Amendment for the following reasons –
There are currently 2 potential sites for the deposit of inert waste inland, both of which are currently active working quarries, at La Gigoulande and at Ronez on the north coast. There is currently no certainty as to the timescale for the completion of infill at La Collette 2, nor is there any certainty that the extraction at the 2 inland sites will have been completed within the remaining time frame of infilling at La Collette 2. The need to ensure that there is continued provision for the disposal of inert waste may necessitate the provision of further marine reclamation as an only means of continuing this activity. The Committee is of the view that any further marine land reclamation sites which may become necessary, should be confined to extension from the wall of the existing sites so that no further natural shoreline is affected. Any further such site must be appropriately engineered and the infilling process rigorously policed to ensure no hazardous material is dumped with the general infill and is instead confined to specified sealed containment areas in the site.
The current quarry at Le Gigoulande is of significant depth and flooding from its base currently serves the watercourse in St. Peter's Valley, used by Jersey New Water Works for the extraction of water supplies for human consumption. It is therefore imperative that any activity within this quarry will protect this important water supply to avoid polluting episodes which may limit or even prevent the future use of this source. Furthermore, in order to effectively infill the current open space will require significant engineering of the fill, including the use of material which would otherwise be considered for recycling therefore limiting the impact of other important areas of the Solid Waste Strategy.
The infilling of material on the Waterfront and subsequently La Collette has shown the enormous difficulties in ensuring that filled material is clean and does not contain materials which may otherwise become polluting following interaction with ground water or subsequent degradation of the material itself. The failure to adequately protect previous infill operations from contamination does not lend support to the assurances required in these particular instances involving inland sites, given the potential to directly affect drinking water supplies in one of the cases.
It is likely that any future inert waste disposal site will also need to be engineered in order to accept hazardous or contaminated land materials which can no longer be dealt with by export to the U.K. The current suspension of the Memorandum of Understanding on the shipping of waste with the U.K. has meant that the Island has been unable to ship to dispose of contaminated or polluting wastes for which there is no recycling or re-use provision in the island. This has resulted in at least one development having to be put on hold due to the presence of gas works contaminated materials. Since the suspension of the Memorandum of Understanding, the ability to dispose of hazardous or contaminated waste in the U.K. has also been severely restricted by the reduction in suitable sites, resulting in a very significant rise in price for deposit. It is therefore likely that any future inert waste site will need to be engineered to ensure that contaminated waste can be accepted and it is intended that reference will be made to this need through the Contaminated Land Strategy for the Island, which is currently being drafted.
The Health and Social Services Committee does not support this Amendment.