Exclusive by Dennis Towle

Controversial plans for a cattle incinerator could be torpedoed after Environment Agency chiefs said it posed an unacceptable risk of pollution to Selby area drinking water supplies.

Coun Jon McCartney

The Evening Press can reveal the agency has objected because the proposed mobile incinerator on the old Pollington airfield would be directly above a major aquifer.

The agency's regional team leader for water resources, Dr John Aldrick, said Yorkshire Water drew a lot of its ground water supplies from the aquifer, which supplied Selby, Goole and Pontefract areas.

Dr Aldrick said: "The aquifer lies immediately under the site and there is very little protection.

"The area is very sandy and anything spilled on the surface just disappears into the ground water because there is no clay to protect it.

"Any activity in this area could easily contaminate ground water resources."

He said they were also concerned about a major pumping station which was only 500 metres from the proposed site.

Dr Aldrick added: They are obviously going to need large quantities of fuel to fire the incinerator, and hydrocarbons are a major cause of pollution of ground water.

"Bringing in cattle carcasses also poses micro-biological risks during any wash-down process.

"The consequences could be very severe if the water supply became contaminated in any way.

"Part of the problem is that we haven't been provided with sufficient information to be able to evaluate the risk, but on the face of it the application appears to be the wrong activity in the wrong place."

The incinerator plans, designed to meet the consequences of the BSE crisis and the burning of cattle carcasses from the over-30-month subsidy scheme, have been submitted to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

The council's strategic development services manager, John Crook, said the Agency had objected on the grounds it posed an "unacceptable" risk of pollution to ground water.

He said: "We regard the Agency's concerns as very significant."

Paul Hodgson, clerk to Pollington Parish Council, said the Agency's objections reaffirmed the fears of residents, and the application should be "kicked out".

Selby District Council's planning committee raised no objections to the incinerator, despite rejecting three months ago a similar application on the former Riccall airfield.

But district councillor John McCartney said: "I'm appalled. If there's a threat to our drinking water, I will be pressing for the issue to be dealt with as an emergency item."

Ian Rowe, of Chapman Warren, the consultants acting for the applicant Euromet, said they were awaiting the Environment Agency's detailed response. Matters could then be properly assessed, and information provided to the Agency in the hope that its concerns could be overcome.

He said one of the controls placed on the operator would mean there would be no surface water discharge to any water supply or drain.

Mr Rowe added: "It will be a contained site and we're convinced there won't be a problem."

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