Information about the Newhaven energy recovery facility - updated 7 December 2011.
Most of the solid waste generated by householders and businesses in East Sussex ends up in landfill sites in Beddingham and Pebsham. These sites are now almost full. Once these sites close, there will be no significant waste disposal facility in East Sussex and an alternative waste management facility is required.
Veolia Environmental Services have been contracted by East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council to deal with household waste in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove. They identified a site in Newhaven for an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) to help deal with such waste, the construction of which is now nearing completion. We expect the facility to be operational later in 2011.
An ERF burns waste under highly controlled conditions. In doing so it recovers heat energy in the form of steam, which is used to generate electricity.
Environmental permit
Following extensive public consultation, we granted a permit to Veolia ES South Downs Ltd for the new incinerator under construction at Newhaven in East Sussex.
Our permit contains strict conditions governing the operation of the incinerator ensuring that public health and the environment are properly protected.
Over the various consultation stages we received approximately 9000 written responses from members of the public, and we considered these alongside comments from professional bodies such as the Primary Care Trust and Health Protection Agency.
The issue of a permit is only the first stage in our regulation of the incinerator. When the facility is up and running, we will monitor its environmental performance, including emissions to air, to ensure that the permit conditions are not breached. We will make sure that the emissions monitoring data is readily available to the community.
In the meantime, we are working closely with other regulators as well as Veolia and Hochtief Construction AG (the company employed by Veolia to construct the incinerator) to make sure impacts on the environment are minimised during the construction phase.
The decision document that explains how we reached our decision can be downloaded (see download section on the right hand side of this page). Paper copies of the final permit are available to view at the Environment Agency office in Chatsworth Road, Worthing as well as Newhaven Library and Lewes District Council offices.
Our role
Our primary role is to make sure that if an ERF is to be built, it is designed and operated to meet
stringent controls. A company that wants to build an ERF has to first submit a planning application to the relevant planning authority. Once the application is submitted, we are consulted on the application as a statutory consultee at which point we would advise the planning authority on the potential environmental impact of the ERF.
It is
our responsibility to make sure that any process involving the treatment of waste
does not result in harm to human health or the environment. This will include looking at the impact of the emissions from the facility to the air. We also make sure that specific issues such as pollution, groundwater protection and flood risk have been satisfactorily addressed. If these have not, then we would object to the planning application.
We do not decide whether the building of an ERF is necessary, or where to locate it. The
local planning authority is responsible for deciding how household waste generated in their area is dealt with and where waste facilities should be located. This is undertaken as part of the local authority's waste management strategy, Waste Local Plan and Development Framework.
Contact us
You can find more information about ERFs and our position on Energy from Waste here. If you have any questions please contact our National Customer Contact Centre on 0370 8506506 (calls charged at the national rate), who will be happy to transfer you to the local area team for more information.
