Benbow Group questions air quality assessments for Ryburn incinerator application

30 November 2021

The Benbow Group have engaged Air Quality Consultants Ltd (AQC) to review the original application and associated air quality technical information. Their report has been submitted to the Council. The Benbow Group comment:

While no ‘major’ issues have been found that, individually, are likely to significantly alter the conclusions stated by the applicant within its air quality assessments, there are areas of uncertainty with the applicant’s roads modelling verification and assessment of the significance of benzo(a)pyrene emissions that, combined, could affect the conclusions of the assessment and the report concludes that there are valid reasons to suggest that the impacts could be greater than ‘negligible.’ Furthermore, the report concludes that additional justification is required on the suitability of the proposed stack height as at present the applicant has failed to demonstrate that the stack height meets the BAT principle.

As the air quality assessment is a supporting document of the permit application, these issues affect the determination of the permit and introduce uncertainty as to whether enough information has been requested by the Council to robustly determine the application.