Stop Stowey Quarry 2012

Bath and North East Somerset Council have re-advertised the planning application notices requesting permission to use Stowey Quarry in the Chew Valley as a landfill site for up to 645,000 tonnes of asbestos.

We believe the site is unsuitable for the following reasons:
• The quarry sits on top of an escarpment with nearby springs and streams feeding into the Chew Valley Lake, a reservoir providing 50 million litres of water a day to Bristol and the surrounding area.
• Bristol Water oppose the plans.
• The sides of the quarry have suffered from landslip.
• The base of the quarry has been quarried so comprehensively that the base is too thin to adequately contain this volume of waste.
• Water used from the springs below the quarry is used for agricultural purposes.

Given this evidence we believe that the chance of asbestos being released into the air, or of contamination of local water sources through effluent escaping into the ground is unacceptable. Due to land slippage, the quarry is not capable of containing asbestos for the long term (as it will be required to do). Our understanding is that no liner, however excellent, is fool-proof and in this event there is a significant risk that asbestos and other waste could escape from the landfill site resulting in the water courses and surrounding land becoming being permanently polluted.

We also believe that the initial Environmental Impact Assessment (produced on behalf of the applicant) was inaccurate and misleading. The Stop Stowey Quarry campaign has commissioned an independent hydro-geology report to support our challenge.