By Cheryl Wood

A WASTE incinerator could pose an unquantified health risk to villagers living only two to four miles away, it was claimed as a bid was made to prevent it being licensed.

SITA UK has applied to environment agency, SEPA, for permission to operate an energy-to-waste facility at Binn Farm, near Glenfarg.

Although the site is in Perth and Kinross Council territory, it is claimed a number of Fife villages that lie just over the border would be among the worst affected by any pollution.

Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo Community Council has urged SEPA to reject the application.

Despite hundreds of objections and controversy over Perth and Kinross Council’s initial failure to consult Fife over the plans, planning permission for the facility was granted in December 2006.

The plant would be capable of processing around 60,000 tonnes of municipal waste from Perth and Kinross a year and producing 4.65 MW of electricity.

Emissions would be released by a 70-metre high stack.

Appealing for an examination in public of the plans, Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo Community Council chairman David Cowling said, “We believe that there is an unquantified and potential health risk to people in this area.”

Rejecting claims by SITA that the population around the plant was sparse, Mr Cowling said there were around 3500 people in Gateside, Auchtermuchty, Strathmiglo, Burnside and Dunshalt, which are between 2.25 and 3.75 miles away.

He said, “It should not be thought appropriate for that number of people to be subject even to the potential health risks of this proposal.”

Mr Cowling said that in particular weather conditions there was already a problem of odour from Binn Farm in the Eden valley.

He added, “Even in the most ideal ambient conditions, and in the most favourable interpretation of the plant’s operational status, there will still remain a real threat to air quality within this community council area.

“It seems to be acknowledged by all parties that the environmental impact of this plant cannot ever be neutral, and that the release of smoke, fumes, gases, dust, steam and odours can be expected to some degree or other.

“The uncertainties thus created by this threat to human and animal health, and even the biodiversity of the area, lead us to believe that this licence application should not be granted on the Binn Farm site.”

However, SITA UK claims there would be minimum to zero risk to human health.

It said the best available technology would be used to minimise impact on the environment and flue gases would not breach air quality standards.

A document with its application says, “The impact of the plant on local air quality is predicted to be small.

“There is no evidence that a well-managed modern waste management facility leads to adverse health impacts on the local population.”