CHAIN have today received a really nice email from the lovely people at Primafilm in Italy highlighting their new video, a trailer for which can be found on You Tube.

They are making what they claim is the worlds largest petition against incineration by inviting people to send them their names to be included on the end credits of the film.  They hope to amass over 50,000 names for these credits, thereby making it not only a potent message against the dangers of incineration but also the longest film credits in the world.

If you would like your name to be included in the credits for this film then all you need to do is send an email with your name directly to the film company and they will do the rest.  To send an email to them just click here.

In the meantime please check out their website and see the video they have produced at sporchidamorire.com

The Pre Inquiry meeting into the proposed Incinerator in Northwich got underway today with the Inspector Elizabeth Hill opening the meeting and welcoming all the interested parties.  The great news is that despite the fact that it was out at Northwich Victoria FC, on a morning in the school holidays, there was a fabulous turnout of over 200 people.  At one point early in the proceedings the Inspector had to halt the meeting as there were too many people standing at the back, and provision for more seating had to be made.

After general introductions she progressed to the vexed question of the timing of this Inquiry, coming as it will the day after the Middlewich Public Inquiry comes to an end.  Tata/EON along with Cheshire West and Cheshire Council (CWAC) both lobbied to keep the dates as they currently stand however CHAIN argued that it was inappropriate to keep to this date as they would have finished the Middlewich Inquiry the day before.  CHAIN argued that on recent evidence it was unlikely that the Middlewich Inquiry would finish on time leaving them absolutely no time to prepare and the real danger that they would not even be able to be present on that day.  After hearing the arguments the inspector said that she would give a written ruling on this point later this week.

Tata/EON then asked for a variation to the normal running order of these meetings meaning that those who oppose would have to present first.  Quite rightly the Inspector denied this application as there were no good reasons for changing it.

The meeting then covered off all the other procedural aspects of the Inquiry, due in October, and following a short recess for lunch it reconvened, cleared the last few items on the agenda and closed.  The photos of the day show that not only were people queuing to get into the meeting but there was also a protest outside the meeting before hand to show the Inspector the depth of local feeling against this particular plan.

The Northwich Pre Inquiry Meeting (PiM) opens tomorrow morning at 11.00am at Northwich Victoria’s ground which is at Wincham Avenue, Northwich, CW9 6GB.  CHAIN are encouraging everyone to be there by 10.30am as there will be an opportunity for a photograph and to show the strength of local feeling about this proposal, before the PiM commences at 11.00.

Whilst the meeting will not make any decisions on the proposed plant it is the first opportunities for the opposing sides to see the arguments that will be presented at the Inquiry when it opens in October.

So if you can get down, please do so and make your voice heard.

In a quite unbelievable story, it appears that the Danes are planning a new incinerator for Copenhagen which incorporates a ski slope on the outside of the building.  In a recent story in the Guardian the architect Bjarke Ingels winning design is set to replace the current out of town incinerator with a new state of the art facility which will allow visitors to ski down the outside.

Denmark is often hailed by the pro incinerator lobby as being a great example of how modern facilities, sited in urban centres, can blend in with the environment and provide a cheap source of energy with no risk of harm to human health.  The other side of the coin says that not only are they conducting the greatest long term experiment of the age into the effects of living in the shadow of an incinerator with the local population as guinea pigs, they are also now at the point where they are burning refuse that should have been recycled.

Of course the answer will lie in the future where one side or the other will be vindicated, but in the meantime it seems that the designers of this new plant have forgotten why the chimney stacks are build so high in the first place.  The height of the chimney dictates the area over which the particulate matter it emits will disperse, and the reason for this is that no matter how you dress it up the output of the chimney will be toxic.  So if you already know that this output is toxic in concentration, and that the plant will periodically emit higher than permitted concentrations of dioxins, furans and other toxic materials, how clever is it that you should be allowing people to stand up right near the top of the chimney and breathe this stuff in?  From this distance it appears to be nothing short of sheer lunacy but you can’t legislate for this type of behaviour.

In the meantime we need to make sure that whenever we take the fight to Covanta in Middlewich and Tata/Brunner Mond in Northwich we need to consistently remind them that incinerators are not safe.  And by continually pressing the point as to why the chimneys need to be as high as they are planned to be we can expose the fact that if they are any smaller then poisonous particulates could easily concentrate on the ground below.  So whilst we can’t stop the Danes behaving madly, we can prevent that madness spreading to Cheshire.

Once again the Guardian has done a wonderfully balanced job of reporting on the pre Inquiry meeting to be held next Tuesday, yet the entire report seems to avoid using the word Incinerator at all.  The comments underneath the article are probably mor revealing than the reporting itself and you can read the story and comments here.

Let’s be clear, the proposal for this plant is to drop a 600,000 tonne incinerator on the edge of town and let it sit there for the next 40-50 years.  There seems to be clear disregard for the residents of Northwich and any reassurance that is requested is met with standard PR spin which contains a lot of platitudes and little concrete reassurance.  And that is because they cannot offer any reassurance or guarantees. Once you build an Incinerator you are stuck with it – for a lifetime.  If it goes wrong it happens on your doorstep.  If it breaches its emissions those same emissions will be inhaled by you and your family.  If it catches fire (one of the many hazards of an incinerator ironically) it’s on fire next to our houses, schools and community.  If Northwich has one of it’s inversions (a regular occurrence in spring and autumn) then the emissions from the chimney, no matter how high it is, will not disperse and we will all inhale the muck it pours out.

So, if you care about where you live and the health of you and your family, you could do worse than attend the Pre Inquiry meeting at Northwich Victoria Football Club next Tuesday, 26th July and register your protest.

A report today from Wallingford in New Jersey USA states that Covanta has been ordered to pay a $400,000 fine and been forced to upgrade one of it’s incinerators due to an emissions violation last summer.  You can read the original story here.

Disturbingly the plant was forced to close in July 2010 and still remains closed one year on, forcing the operator to truck it’s waste to other plants for incineration.  This scenario is not one that is ever considered as part of the planning application, but were it to happen in Cheshire it would inevitably result in the waste being transported by road all over the county.

In addition the plant was found to be emitting twice its permitted levels of Dioxin yet it still remained in use after this was discovered.  There is no evidence to show how long it had been emitting these dangerous levels of dioxins

CHAIN and other protestors have long campaigned against Incineration as a method of waste disposal as it is inherently dangerous and this is yet another example of why it is essential to adopt a precautionary approach to Incineration.

With the Northwich Pre Inquiry Planning Meeting starting next week (Tuesday 26th at 11.00m – be there!) we’re proud to announce the launch of our new website.  We’re kept most of the material from the old one but have gone for a more modern look and feel.  The new site will allow us to put more information on as soon as we get it and to give more opportunity for people to enter into discussions on posts.

Please bear with us whilst we make sure the site has all the resources on it from the old one – if you spot any links that are missing or anything that you think should be there but isn’t then please let us know and we’ll trry our best to put it right.

As with all these things we’re staffed by a small but dedicated band of volunteers who do try their best to fight the good fight on behalf of you, the residents of Cheshire.  If you think the site is missing anything then please feel free to let us know by sending an email.

There are currently proposals from several commercial organisations to build incinerators for burning waste in Cheshire. CHAIN is a group of volunteers who are committed to preventing these plans from going ahead as we believe they will have dire environmental and economic consequences as well as posing considerable health risks to residents in Cheshire.

We owe it to future generations to object to these plans and fight for a better environment.