Woodford Aerodrome BAE Systems Operations Ltd Desk Study for Potential Contamination

Woodford Aerodrome

BAE Systems Operations Ltd

DOCUMENT CONTROL

FS38745 EMS 54524 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction and Objectives

BAE Systems Environmental was commissioned by BAE Systems Operations Ltd to conduct a Preliminary Risk Assessment for Land Contamination (PRALC) on the BAE Systems Woodford Aerodrome at Chester Road, Woodford, Cheshire; an airfield and an aircraft assembly facility.

The objective of the desk study is to carry out a contaminated land assessment of Woodford Aerodrome as part of the corporate Contaminated Land Strategy. The desk study and site reconnaissance will also enable appropriate information about the Site to be collected to assist any potential intrusive investigations.

Site Characteristics

The Site, which is centered on National Grid Reference SJ 900 825, occupies an area of approximately 205 hectares with an elevation of approximately 90mAOD.

The Site is bound to the north by residential and commercial properties. To the east is a railway line, beyond which are residential properties and Adlington industrial estate. To the south is mostly agricultural land with a small group of residential properties. To the west is a small residential development and agricultural land.

BAE Systems Woodford is currently involved with the assembly of aircraft (currently Nimrod) and the painting and paint stripping of aircraft. The Site consists of one main runway and four taxiways. The buildings on the Site are concentrated mainly into two areas: the main assembly areas to the north of the Site, and the main painting and stripping area located at the south of the Site. A large number of the buildings across the Site that were formerly used for assembly are now utilised for storage of aircraft components.

Six named surface water courses are located on the Site, the majority of which flow to the River Dean located in the southern area of Site, an exception to this is Poynton Brook to the east of the Site as this is a tributary to the Mersey.

The use of the Site has changed very little from the development of the Airfield on what was a greenfield site in 1920’s and 1930’s.

Environmental Setting

Geological records and borehole logs indicate the majority of the Site to be underlain by Glacial Till. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Peat deposits are identified within the centre of the Site. Fluvio- Glacial Gravel deposits are located to the east and south east of the Site. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Alluvium deposits are mapped adjacent to the southern boundary of the Site.

A BGS borehole located to the south east of the Site records clays and sands to the base of the borehole, which was terminated at 8.0m below ground level

The solid geology beneath the Site comprises of Pebble Beds to the east and the Upper Mottled Sandstone to the west of the Site. Both stratum form part of the Sherwood Sandstone Group, of Permian Triassic age. Four faults are indicated on the geological map across the Site, running in a north – south direction.

A borehole located 700m to the west of Site confirms the presence of solid geology at 20.7 mbgl.

The report identifies Glacial Till underlying the Site to be a non aquifer due, to its negligible permeability. The presence of groundwater within the Glacial Till is likely to be restricted to any sand and gravel horizons and may not be laterally continuous. The Glacial Sands and Gravels are classified as a Secondary B Aquifer due to their moderate permeability. Groundwater within the solid geology beneath the Site is identified to be a Principal Aquifer. This classification relates

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to deposits with high intergranular and/or fracture permeability implying they provide a high level of water storage.

The Site lies within a Zone II and a Zone III Source Protection Zone. Two source protection boreholes are located within 1000m of the Site, borehole reference NW001 is located 375m to the south of Site and borehole NW148 is located 705m to the northwest of the Site.

Initial Conceptual Model and Potential Pollutant Linkages

The Conceptual Site Model (CSM) is a simplified representation of the environmental conditions at the Site and its surroundings that enables third parties to build up a picture of the Site.

Due to the large number of potential sources of contamination identified on the Site there remains the possibility that on Site sources of contamination may exist. These potential sources are listed below.

Made Ground placed during Ash fill area near coal fired Plating activities (e.g the construction of the boiler house as detailed in the degreasing, alchroming etc) factory. Environ Report.

The paint store, painting and The Ordnance depot, explosives Waste storage areas (both stripping processes. store and positions of anti- historic and current waste aircraft guns. storage).

Historic Fuel tanks (UST’s) The demolition of Site buildings Made Ground where new associated pipework and that were undertaken at the Site. site levels required infilling engines containing aviation of the existing ponds. fuel and diesel.

The garage processes. The old fire training pit. AST’s, associated pipework and engines.

Landfill area within pit area. Boiler houses. Sewerage treatment areas.

Chemical storage Substations. Airfield

Known pollution incidents

The occurrence of any contamination is most likely to be within localised hotspots around drains and floor slabs of the former process buildings, around fuel storage tanks and areas of previous landfilling.

Several pathways have been identified on Site. A pathway is a means by which a receptor can be exposed to, or affected by, a contaminant. The current pathways on Site include migration through the unsaturated zone, via underground services, groundwater, via soil and service trenches, from ingestion of contaminated soil, inhalation of vapour and direct contact with contaminated soil.

A total of four receptors have been identified that could be adversely affected by potential on site sources. The first of these is groundwater this includes the shallow groundwater within the Glacial Till, perched water within Made Ground and the deeper groundwater within the major aquifer. The second identified receptor is the six surface waters located on the Site. Also identified as a potential receptor are future site users following any future redevelopment and maintenance personnel. The final receptor identified on Site is any buildings in particular the building fabric and underground services.

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Recommendations

To address the potential distribution of contaminants, and the pollutant linkages that may be associated with them, it is recommended that an intrusive investigation is undertaken.

The investigation should concentrate on establishing firstly whether contamination sources exist at the Site and whether these have caused, are causing or are likely to cause harm or pollution to receptors at the Site. The investigation should comprise the sampling of soils (including appropriate leachability testing of soils) and surface and ground water’s with testing for contaminants of concern and subsequent appropriate risk assessments. In addition surface water sampling off the Site should also be undertaken in order to assess if the Site is impacting on the quality of the local surface waters.

The investigation should also be undertaken to determine the nature of the underlying geology at the Site and the depth to the solid strata.

An intrusive investigation would also assist in setting an environmental baseline for the Site from which future potential environmental impacts can be measured.

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PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. SITE DETAILS AND DESCRIPTION 2

3. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING 4

4. EXISTING REPORTS AND SITE INVESTIGATIONS 8

5. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT & SITE ACTIVITIES 10

6. WALKOVER SURVEY 14

7. UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE 23

8. ADDITIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION 25

9. INITIAL CONCEPTUAL SITE MODEL 30

10. PRELIMINARY RISK ASSESSMENT 38

11. RECOMMENDATIONS 40

TABLES

TABLE 1 PROPERTY DETAILS

TABLE 2 GEOLOGY

TABLE 3 LICENSED WATER ABSTRACTIONS ONE KILOMETRE RADIUS OF SITE

TABLE 4 UXO FREQUENCY

TABLE 5 POTENTIAL SOURCES

TABLE 6 POTENTIAL PATHWAYS

TABLE 7 POTENTIAL RECEPTORS

A0787-00-R2-1 iv OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental FIGURES

FIGURE 1 SITE LOCATION PLAN

FIGURE 2 SITE LAYOUT PLAN

FIGURE 3 EXTRACT OF GEOLOGICAL MAP

FIGURE 4 EXTRACT OF GROUNDWATER VULNERABILTY MAP

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 SITE WALKOVER PHOTOGRAPHS

APPENDIX 2 BGS LOGS – SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS

APPENDIX 3 BGS LOGS – SOLID GEOLOGY

APPENDIX 4 ENVIROCHECK REPORT

APPENDIX 5 COAL AUTHORITY LETTER

APPENDIX 6 HISTORICAL MAPS

APPENDIX 7 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS

APPENDIX 8 ANNOTATED SITE LAYOUT PLAN

APPENDIX 9 BUILDING NUMBER PLAN

APPENDIX 10 TANK LOCATION PLAN

APPENDIX 11 SERVICE PLANS

APPENDIX 12 ASBESTOS REGISTER

APPENDIX 13 POLLUTION INCIDENT LETTERS

APPENDIX 14 LOCAL AUTHORITY SEARCH

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background and Objectives

BAE Systems Environmental was commissioned by BAE Systems Operations Ltd to conduct a Preliminary Risk Assessment for Land Contamination (PRALC) on the BAE Systems Woodford Aerodrome at Chester Road, Woodford, Cheshire; an airfield and an aircraft assembly facility.

The objective of the desk study was to carry out a contaminated land assessment of Woodford as part of the corporate Contaminated Land Strategy.

This assessment has been conducted in general accordance with current industry good practice guidance documents and within the UK legislative and policy framework.

1.2. Scope of Work

The Site is located and delineated in Figures 1 and 2 respectively.

The assessment has comprised the collation of:

Basic site information;

Current land use and setting;

Site history and condition;

Consultation with the Local Authority.

This information has been used to develop an initial Conceptual Site Model (CSM) and evaluation to provide an indication of which potential pollutant linkages may give rise to unacceptable risks in the context of the preliminary risk assessment. Recommendations for further investigations have also been included.

Reporting conditions are set out at the end of this report.

1.3. Sources of Information

The following general sources of information have been utilised in compiling this report:

Published geological and hydrogeological information;

Maps and site plans;

Regulatory Authority data;

Walkover surveys conducted by experienced BAE Systems Environmental personnel.

Two previous reports relating to the Site were available during this investigation. These were an Initial Environmental Review by EAG ENVIRON and a Desk Study for Potential Contamination by BAE SYSTEMS Environmental Services.

A full reference list is provided at the end of this report.

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2. SITE DETAILS AND DESCRIPTION

2.1. Site Details

Address BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Chester Road, Woodford, Cheshire, SK7 1QR. National Approximate centre SJ 900 825 Grid Reference Area Approximately 205 Ha Elevation Approximately 90m AOD Neighbours To the north are residential and commercial properties. To the east is a railway line, beyond which are residential properties and Adlington industrial estate. To the south is mostly agricultural land with a small group of residential properties. To the west is a small residential development and agricultural land. Access The main access to Site is from Chester Road.

Table 1 - Property details A Site Location Map is presented in Figure 1.

2.2. Site Description

A Site Layout Plan is presented in Figure 2. Several photographs, included as Appendix 1, illustrate the Site.

At present the main activities undertaken at BAE Systems Woodford (the Site) include the assembly of aircraft (the Nimrod MRA4) and stripping and painting of aircraft parts.

The Site covers an area of approximately 205 hectares and is located in an area of mixed use. The Site is accessed from Chester Road to the north of the Site.

The Site consists of the main 2100m runway which runs from south east to north west along the entire length of the Site. Surrounding the runway are four taxiways and grassed areas. The remainder of the Site is open space with four main areas occupied by buildings as detailed in the following section.

Currently in the northern area of the Site are the main assembly buildings of Shed 1, Shed 2, Shed 3 and Shed 4 and administrative buildings, along with two fuel farms and the two waste stations. Within the southern area of the Site are the buildings known as Flight Sheds these comprise of Hangar 1, 2, 3, 3a and 5, currently the ‘Flight Sheds’ are used for mainly general storage. Also located within the south of the Site are the paint shop, a third fuel farm and an area that is currently rented by a farmer for crop growing.

In the eastern area of the Site, the building known as the Maintenance Unit (MU) Store is present. This building is currently used for storage. The south eastern area of the Site beyond the perimeter fence comprises a golf course, this area is part of the Site and is currently being leased by the golf club owners. The Fire Station and Customer Training Centre are located to the south of the main runway. In the western area of the Site is the Fire Training Facility.

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Six named surface water courses are located on the Site, the majority of which flow to the River Dean located in the southern area of Site, an exception to this is Poynton Brook to the east of the Site as this is a tributary to the Mersey.

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3. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING

Extracts of Geological Maps showing solid and superficial geology are presented in Figure 3 with borehole logs held by the British Geological Survey (BGS) on the Site recording superficial deposits in Appendix 2 and solid geology in Appendix 3.

Four borehole logs have been obtained, Borehole SJ88/99 located 180m southwest of the Site, Borehole SJ88/SE/3 located 700m to the west of the Site, Borehole A523 Poynton Bypass BH25/3 located 400m to the southeast of Site and Borehole A523 Poynton Bypass BH29/1 located 150m to the east of the Site.

3.1. Geology

Unit Description Made Ground Made Ground is not recorded on the published BGS Geological Map. The borehole records do not indicate the presence of Made Ground in the surrounding area of the Site. Superficial Geological records and borehole logs indicate the majority of Geology the Site to be underlain by Glacial Till. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Peat deposits are identified within the centre of the Site. Fluvio-Glacial Gravel deposits are located to the east and south east of the Site. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Alluvium deposits are mapped adjacent to the southern boundary of the Site. Borehole SJ 88/99 located approximately 180m southwest of the Site describes firm, clayey silt with fine sand to a depth of 1.0mbgl underlain by fine to medium gravel and silt to 2.95mbgl. Borehole BH25/3 located approximately 400m to the south east of the Site indicates interbedded Firm sandy Clay with Sands and Gravel’s to a depth of 15mbgl. Borehole SJ 88 SE/3 located approximately 700m to the west of the Site confirms the depth of drift deposits to 20.7 mbgl. Solid The BGS Geological Map indicates the Site is underlain by Geology Permo- Pebble Beds to the east and the Upper Mottled Sandstone to Triassic the west. Both stratum lie within the Sherwood Sandstone Group of Permian Triassic age. Four faults are located on Site, running in a north – south direction. Borehole SJ 88 SE/3 confirms the presence of solid geology at 20.7 mbgl. The borehole describes Bunter Sandstone with marl now known as Sherwood Sandstone between the depths of 20.7mbgl and 167 mbgl. The borehole records Sherwood Sandstone containing pebble beds beneath 167mbgl extending to a depth of 305mbgl (base of the borehole).

Table 2 Geology

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3.2. Hydrogeology and Groundwater Vulnerability

The report identifies Glacial Till underlying the Site to be a non aquifer due, to its negligible permeability and ability to support only very minor abstractions, if any. The presence of groundwater within the Glacial Till is likely to be restricted to any sand and gravel horizons and may not be laterally continuous. The Glacial Sands and Gravels are classified as a Secondary B Aquifer due to their moderate permeability. Groundwater within the solid geology beneath the Site is identified to be a Principal Aquifer. This classification relates to deposits with high intergranular and/or fracture permeability implying they provide a high level of water storage.

An extract of the Groundwater Vulnerability Map is included as Figure 4.

On this Groundwater Vulnerability Map the soils in the west and centre of the Site are classified as U “Soils of High Leaching Potential”. Soils classified as U are those in urban areas or those in inaccessible locations and are so classified due to a general lack of observations, with a worst-case classification used until proven otherwise. In the east and south east of the Site the majority of the soils are classified as H1 ‘’Soils which readily transmit liquid discharges’’ the drift geological map showed the sandstone to be outcropping within this location, indicating soils to be absent or very shallow.

The remainder of the site soils are classified as ‘’Soils of Low Leaching Potential’’, these are soils which can possibly transmit non- or weakly absorbed pollutants and liquid discharges but are unlikely to transmit absorbed pollutants. Soils of low leaching potential generally correlate to the presence of Glacial Till.

The Envirocheck (Appendix 4) indicates that the Environment Agency has confirmed the Site to fall within a Zone II and a Zone III Source Protection Zone. A Zone II or the outer protection zone is defined as either 25% of the source or a 400 day travel time whichever is greater, the Zone III or Total Catchment is defined as the total area needed to support the discharge from the protected groundwater source. Two source protection boreholes are located within 1000m of the Site, borehole reference NW001 is located 375m to the south of Site and borehole NW148 is located 705m to the northwest of the Site.

Groundwater levels recorded in the BGS BH SJ88 SE/3 (located 700m to the west of Site) were noted as 14mbgl with a rest level of water at 13mbgl within the solid geology.

Several areas across the Site have been identified within the Envirocheck Report as at risk from both flooding and extreme flooding by rivers without defences. An area of risk in the south of the Site is the Golf course which is within the flood plain of the River Dean. Other potential areas of flooding are identified on areas surrounding Shirdfold Farm Brook (the centre and eastern areas of Site), areas surrounding Red Brook (in the east of the Site) and the land surrounding Poynton Brook (in the north east of the Site). The flood maps are included within Appendix 4.

3.3. Hydrology

Poynton Brook flows in a northerly direction across the north eastern boundary of the Site. This is a tributary of the River Mersey.

Shirdfold Farm Brook rises from a spring on Adlington Industrial Estate and enters the Site to the south east, the brook then crosses the main runway in a culvert running south to north and runs along the north west boundary to the runway strip until it meets Bridle Road where it re-crosses the main runway in another culvert running from north to A0787-00-R2-1 5 OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental

south. The Brook then forms the south east boundary to the Site until it's confluence with Red Brook to the south of Hangars 1, 2, 3, 3a and 5.

Moor End Brook rises from a spring to the north of the Site and runs in a culvert approximately to the west of Building No.4 running to beyond Crash Gate 7 where it emerges alongside Bridle Road until it joins Shirdfold Farm Brook at the bottom of Bridle Road.

Red Brook flows past the southern boundary adjacent to Hangars 1, 2, 3, 3a and 5 and joins the River Dean in the south east of Site.

Moss Wood Brook is thought to rise from a spring near to Building 20 and flows generally along the north west boundary in a culvert. It emerges just beyond building 66 where it continues to flow generally south west along the boundary eventually joining the River Dean to the west of the site.

The River Dean is located in the southern area of Site to the south of the golf course.

Red Brook, Poynton Brook and the River Dean are all monitored for water quality by the Environment Agency. These surface waters are all graded as Grade b which suggests a good environmental quality.

3.4. Licensed Water Abstractions

There is one licensed abstractions from surface water identified within a kilometre on the Site. These are summarised within Envirocheck reference 22. A further four licensed abstractions from groundwater are identified within a kilometre radius of the Site. These are summarised below with Envirocheck references 23 to 26 and Envirocheck ref. 18.

Ref Grid Licence Location Distance Operator Use Source No. Reference Number from Site (m) 22 E389300 2569019063 Woodford 10m C.H.Dakin Agricultural- River Dean South & Son spray N381795 irrigation

23 E388800 2569019021 Well at Old 240m F&N General Groundwater N381700 Hall Farm, Northwest Morten Agriculture, Woodford General Use 24 E390001 256901944 Adlington 357m United Public Water Groundwater N380901 Macclesfield, Southeast Utilities Supply Cheshire Water Plc

26 E388400 2569019040 Woodford 719m United Public Water Groundwater N382300 Pumping Northwest Utilities Supply Station Water Plc Hazel Grove & Bramhall 18 E390580 2569019054 Sandy Hey 103m David Household Groundwater N381780 Farm, West Hugh water supply, Adlington, Moss Golf Courses; Macclesfield. Spray irrigation.

Table 3: Licensed water abstractions within a one kilometre radius of the Site.

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3.5. Mineral Extraction

According to enquiries to the Coal Authority (see letter presented in Appendix 5), the Site lies outside a coal mining area, and consequently a coal authority report was not required.

The BGS consider there to be two areas that have the potential for compressible ground stability hazards. The first area the BGS considers to be of high risk from compressible ground subsidence is located in the south of the Site within the grassed area between Bravo Taxiway and Alpha Taxiway, the drift geological map indicates an area of peat at this location. The Second area, the BGS considers to be of moderate risk from compressible ground subsidence, is located in the south of the Site within the area that is occupied by the golf course; the drift geological map shows alluvium at this location.

Historical maps (presented as Appendix 6) do not indicate that any mineral extraction activity has occurred on the Site itself. Areas of mineral activity are identified on the 1873 plan with a sand pit that was approximately 30m by 30m located adjacent to the southwestern boundary; this sand pit is not shown on later plans suggesting it may have been infilled. The 1935 and1954 historical maps show a second Sand Pit that is adjacent to the earlier pit located 105m south west of the Site.

The BGS consider the risk of running sand, shrinking or swelling clay and landslide ground stability hazards to be low or very low.

3.6. Radon Gas Risk

The Site is located in an area where less than 1% of domestic residences (within a 1 km radius) are above the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) action level for radon of 200 Bq m-3.

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4. EXISTING REPORTS AND SITE INVESTIGATIONS

Two reports dealing with ground and groundwater conditions are available for the Site, these are briefly reviewed below.

4.1. EAG ENVIRON, Initial Environmental Review, British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Woodford. Report Reference R-C3027.doc. March 1999.

EAG ENVIRON was commissioned by British Aerospace Aircraft Woodford in 1999 to undertake an initial environmental review of its manufacturing facility and airfield. This review aimed to establish the environmental status of the business for the purpose of implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS).

This initial report reviewed site activities looking at environmental legislation and levels of legislative compliance, identified the environmental aspects, highlighting any areas of improvement and gave recommendations for the development and implementation of an EMS at Woodford.

The report praised the fully compliant coatings used for painting on Site and also the drainage system and its use of petrol interceptors.

The report highlighted breeches of environmental legislation, the main breech was the design and location of the waste compound which allowed inert waste to escape off site and off the compound.

Several areas for potential historic contamination were identified within the report and overall EAG ENVIRON suggest that the Site has several areas of medium to high environmental risk from historic activities. The main areas for potential historic contamination are listed below;

Twenty two under ground storage tanks storing aviation fuel, leaded and unleaded petrol and gas oil.

Thirty one above ground storage tanks for the storage of aviation fuel, gas oil, diesel, waste fuel, airfield deicer and oil mixtures.

Plating shop.

Buried American cars.

Fire Training pit

Site waste compound.

On site coal fired boilers and associated ash fill.

The report identifies several potential migration pathways for contaminants including the several surface water courses and the potential for contaminants to migrate from the underground storage tanks to groundwater.

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4.2. BAE SYSTEMS Environmental Services. Desk Study for Potential Contamination at BAE Systems Woodford. Report reference P546-00-R1. July 2002.

BAE SYSTEMS Environmental Services at the request of BAE SYSTEMS Property Services conducted a Desk Study for Potential Contamination at the BAE SYSTEMS Woodford Aerodrome Maintenance Unit store, Woodford, Cheshire in 2002. The objective of the Desk Study was to investigate the potential for contamination to be present on the study area and evaluate the implications of these factors on the current and potential future uses of the study area. The ‘study area’ comprised the maintenance unit store and its immediate surrounding area located to the east of the Site.

The report identified the study area to be underlain by drift deposits of Fluvio-Glacial Gravels, overlying Pebble Beds of the Sherwood Sandstone Formation.

The Desk study identified the potential for a few localised sources of ground contamination to be present on the study area. The report concluded that in general a low risk existed to the study area users and the study areas neighbours due to the relatively small amounts of chemicals stored on the study area, and coverage of the ground with either hardstanding or vegetation.

The report highlighted a plausible pollutant pathway to both the surface and groundwater but given the small quantities of chemicals that were at the time used and stored on site and the minimal evidence of any pollution, it was considered that the risk to both the surface water and groundwater was low.

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5. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT & SITE ACTIVITIES

5.1. General

The following section refers to the historical development and current activities at the Site. This information has been compiled from various document sources including Ordnance Survey (OS) historical plans, aerial photographs and Site walkover visits.

Extracts of relevant historical maps are included as Appendix 6.

5.2. Site History

Pre 1912

The earliest available OS map for the area, dated 1873, shows the Site to consist of two farms. Yewtree Farm and its associated buildings are located in the northern area of Site and Shirdfold Farm in the north eastern area of the Site. The remainder of the Site is made up of hedge lined fields containing numerous ponds and marsh saltings.

There are several water courses shown across the Site: Shirdfold Farm Brook is shown running south through the Site, the drainage ditch which currently forms the south eastern boundary of the Site and an unnamed water course is shown running along the northern boundary of the Site.

To the east of the Site is a railway line branch which is still present and operational today. To the south of the Site are New Hall Farm, Dairy House Wood and Isles Wood all of which are shown to be adjacent to the southern Site boundary. Adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Site is a sand pit. Lower Swineseye Farm is shown located adjacent to the northern boundary of the Site, the land attached to this farm appears to be within the Site boundary.

The 1882 historical map shows a large tree plantation towards the centre of the Site, see segment A16 of the Envirocheck historical map.

The historical map of 1897 no longer shows the sand pit that was previously located adjacent to the eastern Site boundary; which may indicate that it has been infilled. The map also shows a new plantation named Moss Wood adjacent to the north west boundary.

The 1899, 1909 and 1910/11 OS maps show very little change to the Site and the immediate surrounding area, other than the removal of some field boundaries. In the surrounding area there has been residential development in Kitts wood to the north of the Site.

1920’s to 1930’s

It is understood that the airfield was originally purchased in 1921 by A.V. Roe (later becoming Avro and eventually BAE Systems) although other evidence suggests the airfield only became an active aerodrome in 1924. In its early development the airfield was significantly smaller than the present Woodford Aerodrome site today occupying just the area to the north of New Hall Farm and was originally an open grassed landing area with a hangar originally from Alexandra Park Manchester. It is understood that the final assembly and test flying of the Avro Avian was completed at Woodford.

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From the historical plans that have been obtained for the Site there are no historical plans available for the period between 1910/1911 and 1938.

Woodford Aerodrome was expanded during the 1930s to incorporate the northern areas off Site, this is shown on the 1938 OS map. The Flight Sheds and several smaller buildings are shown in the southern area of Site and a large building possibly Shed1 is shown on the northern section of Site.

The central area appears to be undeveloped although all of the ponds appear to have been infilled and all hedges forming the field boundaries have been cleared, suggesting this area is a grass airstrip. The eastern area of Site is not shown to be part of the aerodrome at this time and appears to have been used for agricultural purposes. In the immediate surrounding area the village of Poynton has further developed and there has been further residential development at Kitts Wood and along Chester Road to the north of the Site.

From the walkover survey it was observed that the buildings across the Site vary in age of construction reflecting the many phases of development and extensions of the airfield. The original buildings from the 1920’s are located to the south of the Site around New Hall Farm, many of the buildings within the northern area of the Site are originally of late 1930’s, 1940’s construction although many have been altered significantly with later extensions.

WWII

In the late1930’s and 1940’s Woodford was involved in the production of Blenheims, Lancasters and Canberra bomber aircraft. In 1941 many Blenheims made their first flights from Woodford. At this time Chadderton (Manchester) was Avro’s main factory where the main components were built, these components were then transported to Woodford for assembly.

It is understood that the buildings in the east of the Site and those on the current Adlington Industrial Estate were originally constructed by the United States of America Air Force (USAAF) during the Second World War possibly as an Ordnance Depot. The depot in the 1940’s was not part of Woodford Aerodrome but was located approximately 1000m to the north east of the original airfield. In 1942 the depot was assigned to the airfield as a Maintenance Unit, to assist with the repair and maintenance of the ever increasing number of aircraft stationed in England. In the 1950’s with the expansion of the runway to the north east the MU store became incorporated within the Site boundary to Woodford Aerodrome.

The USAAF are known to have flown to Woodford Aerodrome during WWII most probably to visit the ordnance depot. Training and liaison aircraft were common at Woodford throughout the war.

Typically airfields operational during WWII commonly comprised the following,

Ammunition Storage. It is possible that small quantities of ammunition may have been stored on the Site for aircraft machine guns (proof rounds) anti-aircraft rounds, site security. Ammunition would have been stored in an approved building and it is likely a strict booking in and out record was kept to ensure accountability the items stores.

Anti-aircraft (AA) defence. These were common on airfields. It is understood that there is one pill box located to the east of the Site.

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Waste Disposal. Airfield sites often had areas where site derived waste was disposed of, including scrapped aircraft, aircraft components and luminised instrument dials.

There is some indication that scrap metal may have been discarded on Site and aerial photographs indicate areas of disturbance to the south of the Flight Sheds and in the far southern area of Site( currently the golf course) which may suggest the presence of waste disposal, given this evidence the presence of buried waste, cannot be discounted.

Evidence has suggested that Ammunition Storage, Anti-aircraft emplacements and waste disposal has potentially occurred on Site.

Post WWII

The Site is not shown on the 1954 OS map; although it is assumed that this is the result of national security.

The 1976/77 OS map shows the complete Site with the extended Woodford Aerodrome airstrip and the positions of the buildings. The Site is annotated as an Aircraft factory.

The 1984/7 OS map shows a similar situation with several tanks annotated on the plan, while the 1999 plan shows that several of the buildings in southern area of Site have been extended and a new Fire Station constructed. The map also shows the main building in the northern area of site has been extended. To the east of the Site in the location of the MU Store there appears to be a boundary indicated between the Site and the remaining Industrial Estate units on the 1999 plan.

In 2001 Regional Aircraft jet business stopped manufacture at Woodford and manufacturing at the Site was consequently scaled down.

Aerial Photographs

A number of aerial photographs of the Site have been sourced from the National Monuments Record and from the Woodford Site Heritage Centre; these are included as Appendix 7.

An aerial photograph from 1933 shows the southern area of Site with Hangar 1 and the buildings of New Hall Farm located off Site, the airstrip at this time appears to be grassed. The land surrounding the Site appears to be used for largely agricultural purposes.

There are two aerial photographs taken in 1938 of the Flight Sheds and the immediate surrounding areas. These show the addition of Hangars 2, 3 and 5. There are areas of hardstanding around these Hangars, the remaining areas and the airfield are all grassed. To the west the photo shows the clubhouse and another smaller Hangar. Behind the smaller Hangar a pit can be seen. To the north of the flight sheds the area appears to be an open grassed airstrip.

There are five aerial photographs from 1940. The first of these shows the northern area of Site, the dominant feature being Sheds 1, 2, 3 and 4. Located to the south of the Sheds are two runway strips. The eastern area of the Site is not part of the airfield at this time and appears to be agricultural land on which several drainage ditches are clearly visible.

Three of the photographs taken in 1940 show the southern section of Site around the Flight Sheds, the runways are visible on all of these photographs. To the south of the A0787-00-R2-1 12 OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental

Flight Sheds is an area of ground that appears to have been reworked but not developed. The small pit identified on the earlier 1938 photographs can be seen clearly on two of the photographs along with a track that leads from the Flight Sheds to the pit.

The final picture from 1940 was taken by the Luftwaffe and shows the entire Site, the second runway appears to be undergoing an extension to the south west.

The aerial photograph taken in 1947 covers the northern section of Site and shows there has been very little external changes to Sheds 1, 2, 3 and 4. To the south of the Sheds a sewage treatment plant is visible. On the taxiways aircraft docking places have been built.

The aerial photograph from 1951 clearly shows the extension of the main runway to the east of the Site. To the south of the Site in the area of the pit previously identified there is an area of disturbed ground, suggesting this may be an area for waste disposal.

An aerial photograph taken on 3rd June 1951 covers the far eastern area of Site around the location of building 34. The photograph shows the buildings of the former Maintenance Unit in their present positions. The now derelict building is clearly visible to the west of the main building. Three small structures that are not present today are apparent to the east of the main building.

The end of the aerodrome runway is visible to the west of the Property, although it is clear that at this time the runway had not yet been extended to the full length which it displays today.

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6. WALKOVER SURVEY

6.1. General

A walkover survey of the Site was conducted on the 6th May 2008 by a BAE SYSTEMS Environmental Services Geo-Environmental Consultant.

The walkover survey was conducted to establish the current environmental setting of the Site and allow visual inspection and assessment. This included the identification of any potentially contaminative processes or visual evidence of any contamination as being present on the Site or surrounding area.

An annotated plan of the Site is presented in Appendix 8, with selected photographs from the walkover survey presented in Appendix 1.

6.2. Site Description

BAE Systems Woodford is currently mainly involved with the assembly of aircraft currently Nimrod with a small amount of paint stripping and painting. A large number of the buildings across the Site are no longer used for assembly but are now utilised for storage of aircraft components. The Site consists of one main runway and four taxiways. The buildings on the Site are concentrated mainly into two main areas with the main assembly areas to the north of the Site, with the main painting and stripping area located at the south of the Site.

Previous activities on the Site were mainly the assembly, painting and paint stripping of aircraft. The quantity of painting and paint stripping is believed to have been considerably more then what is currently undertaken.

6.3. Site Wide Issues

Buildings and structures

Northern buildings

The majority of the buildings in the northern area of Site were built around the beginning of WWII. The dominant structures within this area of Site are the large metal clad and brick construction buildings that are named Sheds 1, 2, 3 these are all interconnected and built in 1938 originally for the Manchester’s and the Lancaster’s aircraft. Connected to Sheds 1, 2 and 3 are buildings 5, 6, 7,9,11, 12, 13 and Shed 4.

The main assembly Sheds 1, 2 and 3 are used for the assembly of prefabricated components. These three sheds have always been aircraft assembly sheds and there is no evidence of significant chemical storage within the building and no visible staining on the floor areas. In general there was a good standard of housekeeping throughout these buildings.

To the south of Shed 3 within the main assembly sheds is a small area of metal working machines, all the machines have their own sump which contains cooling oil. The oil sumps are filled by a trolley and the cooling oil is stored on bunded pallets. Any metal swarf that is created in this area is collected by the waste contractor for the Site. The hardstanding in this area is in good condition and there appeared to be no staining.

Building B12 is the component finishing shop. Painting on the Site is carried out in two areas. Smaller components are painted within the component finishing shop, and the A0787-00-R2-1 14 OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental

painting of large components and aircraft is undertaken in the southern area of Site. The component finishing shop consists of four vehicle painting booths, two of which are used for paint removal using a hydraulic jet and compressed air and the remaining two booths are utilised for painting. This entire area is bunded and waste water is collected and taken away as hazardous waste by a licensed contractor.

Building 4 is the final assembly hangar and is where completed aircraft undergoes electrical and hydraulic testing. This testing can require the aircraft tanks to be filled with hydraulic oil and aviation fuel. Within this building the floor is fully bunded, and is split into four bays, two of which are wet bays and two are dry. The wet bays are used for filling and empting the aircraft of oils and fuel.

Aviation fuel is supplied to these bays from the fuel farm located to the north of building 4 via the adjacent fuel pump house and through an underground fuelling system to hydrant pits beneath the bays. The underground fuelling pipes are connected with flanges, the connections are all situated within manholes and their integrity is checked frequently. The two wet bays and are protected by a total of eight foam cannons that have the potential to cover the entire two bays with foam in the event of any fires.

Building 13 is the maintenance workshop. There is no evidence of significant chemical storage within the building and no staining was visible on the floor areas.

Building 18 is the old treatment facility known as the plating shop. It was involved with on site treatments up until the 1960’s and 1970’s and was decommissioned in approximately 2000/ 2001. Within this building there was a vapour degreaser, liquid degreaser, alochrome and anodise baths and rinse tank. It is unknown whether these tanks where above or below ground. All of the treatment facilities have been removed and the building is now used for general storage. Access in to building 18 was not possible during the walkover.

Building 20 is the ‘structures building’ used for component testing since the 1950’s although it is now closed. The main chemicals used within this building were degreasants and hydraulic oil which were stored in a bunded store. Hydraulic oil was supplied to the machines through pipes that ran along the walls of the machine room, some staining was evident on the floor around the machines. This building also contains a small chemical laboratory, which used small quantities of chemicals for analysis purposes. The entire floor of the laboratory was bunded.

Building 17 is currently used to house cars but until the late 1980’s and early 1990’s was used as the airfield fire station. There is no evidence of significant chemical storage within this area.

Building 11 is of 1950’s construction and was originally occupied by Hawker Siddley Dynamics which assembled air missiles. They were not involved with the assembly of warheads and it is understood that no explosives were used for this project.

Building 19 was used for storing chauffeur cars and is now used for archiving.

Building 10 is a paint store, paint is stored on racks within a fully bunded building the store is at present 75% empty.

Adjacent to building 10 is a store for commercial gas’s and aircraft gas’s, oils, greases and aircraft fuel rigs. This building is completely bunded and drainage is connected to a sump and not to external drainage.

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To the north and east of the main assembly building are a significant number of freight containers, some of which contain small quantities of components and others which are empty.

Building 106 is the cartridge store that currently stores initiators for fire extinguishers, historically this was an explosive store.

Southern Buildings

Building 34 known as the MU Store is currently used for storage by the company Apollo Metals based primarily at Warton. Access to the MU Store was not possible during the walkover survey. This building was previously stripped of asbestos cement and reclad in metal.

Building 78 houses the pumps for the sprinkler system and includes a 1000cc diesel engine and a tank which contains approximately 100 litres of diesel. Any spills are contained by a lip on the floor in the entrance. Access to the water Pump House was not possible during the walkover survey.

Building 56 is the airfield fire station. Foam concentrates are located on plastic bunds stood on the hardstanding outside of the station. When the foam concentrate is required it is pumped directly into the fire engines. A standby generator is located within the station this has a small fuel tank that is fully bunded.

Building 54 is a training centre operated by Oxford Aviation Academy and as such has very limited chemical storage. However this building does have plant rooms in which hydraulic oils are stored within bunded tanks.

Building 40 is the surface finishing centre that contains two bays (Bay A & Bay B). Bay A is used for paint stripping, using either an acid or alkali stripper and Bay B is used for painting. The drainage within both bays is not connected to external drainage systems but is connected to a tank. The tank is emptied by a specialist contractor.

B49 is a garage using various oils, fuels and greases, the hardstanding in this area appears to be in good condition, although with small areas of staining. The garage has its own vehicle wash down bay. All the water from this facility goes via an associated petrol interceptor which is located behind the garage.

Hangar 1, Hangar 2, Hangar 3, Hangar 3a and Hangar 5 (Flight Sheds) were originally all aircraft hangars but since the 1990’s they have been used for storage of aircraft parts.

The Fire Fighting Practice Area is located in the western area of the Site. A small quantity of aviation fuel is held within the tank in this area. Any runoff fuel within water goes in to the petrol interceptor. If foam is used during practice then the run off is collected in a separate tank which is collected by Veolia.

A plan detailing all the building numbers and there current or previous uses is included as Appendix 9.

6.3.1. Airfield

The airfield consists of the main 2100m runway running southwest to northeast across the length of the Site and four taxiways (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta).

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To the east of Bravo and Alpha taxiway is the southern apron. This apron was utilised from the 1920’s to 2001 and was used for parking aircraft. Delta apron is located to the north of Delta taxiway and is used for fuelling aircraft, this has a petrol interceptor connected to the drainage for this area. A third apron is located to the north of Charlie taxiway and is used for de-icing and engine testing, this area also has a petrol interceptor connected to the drainage.

6.3.2. Storage Tanks

It is understood that there has been a total of 22 underground storage tanks (UST) across the Site 16 of which have either been concreted or removed. The remaining six have been emptied of their contents, cleaned and refilled with water for an emergency water supply. These UST’s are discussed in more detail below. The locations of 20 of the underground tanks are known and are detailed on the Tank Location Plan (Appendix 10).

In the north eastern area of the Site are three unused UST’s. It is understood these tanks were filled with concrete in approximately 1975. The previous contents of these tanks are unknown.

To the west of building 74 are two unused UST’s. It is understood these tanks have been filled with concrete in approximately 1975.

Two UST’s are located to the west of building 75. These tanks are currently used to store water for emergency water supply, the previous contents of these tanks is unknown.

A total of thirteen UST’s are located within the southern area of Site, eleven of these tanks are understood to have been filled with concrete in approximately 1975. The remaining two tanks in this area currently hold water for an emergency water supply. The previous contents of these tanks are unknown.

The locations of two UST’s are not known, these are noted on Appendix 10 as tanks 17 & 18. Site records indicate that prior to being removed these tanks were decommissioned and filled with concrete in approximately 1975.

Also there has been a total of 32 above ground storage tanks (AST) across the Site six of these tanks have been removed. The remaining 26 tanks are still in use and are discussed in more detail below.

A fully bunded AST is located in front of B11, this tank has a capacity of 55 000 litres and contains aviation fuel. Underground pipes lead to Shed 1, Shed 2 and Shed 3 although these pipes were decommissioned and cleaned in 2002 and no aviation fuel is now used within these Sheds. The hardstanding within the bund is in good condition. The filling point for the tank is located just outside the bunded area. The bund is fitted with a hydrocarbon sensor and alarm.

An aviation fuel store is located to the north of building 4 there are two tanks with capacities of 34 000 litres and 52 000 litres containing aviation fuel surrounded by concrete bunding that appeared in good condition. The bunds are fitted with hydrocarbon sensors. The adjacent fuel pump room is also bunded. The filling point for the tanks is located just outside the main bunded area within a 15cm high concrete bund, no staining was apparent.

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An aviation fuel store is located in the southern area of the Site north of building 4 this store contains 5 tanks varying in volume from 17 500 litres to 75 000 litres all within concrete bunding that includes a hydrocarbon sensor and alarm. The filling point is outside the bunded area and has no form of bunding. The tanks and fill points are protected by an oil interceptor.

Site personnel are aware of an incident during refuelling the date of this incident is unknown. The incident involved overfilling of a tank and fuel spilled out of the ‘breathers’. Heavy wind carried the fuel to the adjacent grassed area. Soil sampling was carried out and no contamination was detected, the analysis results have been requested.

Located on the roof of building 20 is a gas oil tank for the boiler within building 20. The tank bunding is fitted with a hydrocarbon sensor and alarm. A previous incident involved the tank being overfilled, the bund was sufficient to hold the overflow. During the clean up oily rags are reported as not being disposed of correctly and there was a concern of oil reaching the surrounding hardstanding. No staining was evident during the walkover.

A gas oil tank with a capacity of 3 500 litres is located on the roof of building 17. this tank is located within a bund that is fitted with a hydrocarbon sensor and alarm.

Located adjacent to building 21 is a fully bunded gas oil tank with a capacity of 9 000 litres. The bund contains hydrocarbon sensors and alarms.

A gas oil tank is located within the Veolia hazardous waste compound. The gas oil within this tank is used to fill Site vehicles. The entire filling station in which the tank is located is bunded.

A 10 000 litre capacity above ground storage tank is located on the eastern side of the boiler house at the MU Store. The tank is surrounded by a single bund, approximately 1 m high. The hardstanding within the bund is in good condition. The filling point for the tank is located inside the bunded area and some staining is visible on the outside of the bund wall, beneath the filling point. The bund contains hydrocarbon sensors and alarms.

A diesel tank with a capacity of 4 500 litres is located next to the fire station within concrete bunded tank. The bund contains hydrocarbon sensors and alarms.

A gas oil tank is located within the generator house at the fire station. This tank has a capacity of 1 000 litres.

Adjacent to the southern boiler house within building 60 are two fully bunded gas oil tanks both with the capacity of 177 000 litres. The bund contains a pH sensor and alarm

Located to the south of the painting bays in the southern section of Site is an acid water tank for the collection of the waste process drainage water. This tank has a capacity of 3 500 litres.

To the south of the garage is a waste oil tank with a capacity of 9 000 litres, runway deicer tank with a capacity of 7 500 litres and two diesel tanks (one of which is red diesel) with capacities of 13 500 and 18 000 litres. All of the tanks

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are contained within bunds that are fitted with hydrocarbon sensors and alarms. The area surrounding the fuel pumps used by Site vehicles has staining on the hardstanding. There is no bunding within the fuel dispensing area, although the hardstanding appears in good order.

Four tanks are located next to building 4. Two gas oil tanks with capacities of 410 000 litres for the boiler house, a waste aircraft fuel tank with a capacitiy of 33 000 litres and a waste oil tank with a capacity of 2 750 litres. All the tanks were located within concrete bunding. The two oil tanks and waste aircraft tank shared a bund and the waste oil tank has its own concrete bund. All the bunds are fitted with hydrocarbon sensors and alarms. The fill point for the fuel oil tanks was not bunded and there was considerable staining on the surrounding hardstanding.

It was confirmed by site personnel that routine inspection of the tanks bunds is carried out monthly. All bunded areas have bund water controls that are fitted with pollution sensors; these are serviced by Emcor twice a year. It is understood that the bund capacity for all the tanks across the Site is a minimum of 110%, where two tanks share the same bund the bund capacity is 110% of the largest tank.

The integrity of the larger tanks have recently been checked, although there is no set routine for this procedure, and usually tank integrity involves a visual check during the monthly bund check.

Several historic UST’s that are no longer in use have been identified during the walkover, and on the Site External Storage Tanks Plan. These tanks are discussed in more detail below.

A waste oil tank was located to the south of building 14. This tank had a capacity of 4 000 litres.

A tank with a capacity of 4 000 litres was located to the south of the garage. This tank contained de-icer.

A gas oil tank with a capacity of 2 750 litres was located within a sprinkler pump house to the south east of Hangar 4.

A gas oil tank was located to the south of building 97. This tank had a capacity of 3 500 litres. The tank was decommissioned and removed in December 2007.

A gas oil tank with a capacity of 2 750 litres was located at building 51. This tank was decommissioned and removed in December 2007.

A 10 000 litre gas oil tank was located at building 32. This tank was removed in July 2007.

An external storage tank plan is included as Appendix 10, this plan details the location of all current tanks with there contents and capacities.

6.3.3 Waste Disposal/Waste Storage

Current waste storage

Veolia Environmental Services are contracted to deal with the waste on Site. There are three main facilities on Site.

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The first area is located within the northern area of the Site adjacent to the western boundary. This compound is used to store large waste metal items and construction rubble that has been removed from Site. This area is known as The Assembly Croft.

The second waste facility is known as ‘Flight Sheds Crofts’ and is located in the southern area of the Site. This facility is used for large metal items which require cutting up for disposal. In all cases metals go off site in skips to a scrap reprocesser via Veolia.

The third waste facility is located in the northern area of Site to the east of building B4. This compound processes all factory and office waste (e.g. paper, general refuse, wood and cardboard), any dry hazardous waste (paint tins, solvent tins, contaminated brushes/rags, etc), and any liquid wastes. Liquid wastes are normally collected directly from the point of generation and segregated within the hazardous waste compound. The entire waste compound area is bunded.

The Site organises its waste into several waste streams using colour coded bins, with green for recycling, blue or black for general refuse, red for hazardous and brown for metal.

Historic waste disposal

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a historic dump for all waste created on Site was located in the area of the golf course to the south of the Site.

6.3.3. Utility Services

Sixteen substations are present on the Site, the locations of these substations is detailed in the Site Location and Capacity of Substation Plan included within Appendix 11. It is understood that cooling oil containing PCBs was removed and replaced with environmentally compliant cooling oil.

A large underground sewerage tank is located to the south of building 11. The sewerage is pumped to Chester Road. Previously settlement and filter beds were located adjacent to the current sewerage tank; this has now been redeveloped in to car parking.

Close to the MU Store is a septic tank which is an open cylindrical construction made from a combination of concrete and concrete blocks. It is approximately 2-3 m in diameter. It is located close to the eastern Site boundary, within approximately 5 m of the drainage ditch. The contents of the septic tank are pumped out twice yearly and discharged into the sewer on the main site.

Located adjacent to the southern boundary is a sewerage tank and filter beds there is discharge consent for this position relating to the release of treated effluent into Red Brook.

A septic tank is located at the Clubhouse located at the south of the Site, there is discharge consent is for the release of treated effluent from the septic tank into Red Brook.

A small sewerage treatment area with an outfall into the adjacent stream is located to the north of building 36. The discharge consent at this location relates to the release of treated effluent from the sewerage treatment area at the customer training centre to Red Brook.

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There are a total of eight petrol interceptors connected to the drainage across Site. The locations of the eight petrol interceptors are shown on the Location of Fuel Interceptors Plan included within Appendix 11.

Also running from north to south across the eastern area of Site is an oil pipeline that is approximately 10mbgl. This oil pipeline does not service the Site but runs from the Stanlow Oil Refinery at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire to the Carrington Oil Refinery at Trafford Park, Manchester. It is understood this pipeline was constructed during the WWII period.

Six service plans are included as Appendix 11. These plans are as follows;

Site Natural Gas Main

Site Electric HV and LV Cable Runs Underground

Site Surface Water Drainage

Site Location and Capacity of Substations

Location of Fuel Interceptors

Site Foul Drainage System

6.4. Ground Conditions and Surroundings

Concrete hardstanding surrounds the main buildings on Site. Hardstandings to the north of the Site over the main car park and on roadways generally appeared to be in good condition. The hardstanding around the MU Store was generally of good condition with some areas displaying cracking or crumbling. The condition of hardstanding in the southern area was generally good along the roads and hardstanding surrounding the Fire Station and down to the Flight Sheds although it was in particularly poor in the south of the Site.

The remaining areas are generally grassed and are well maintained. The eastern, western and southern edge of the Site is occupied by a number of trees and bushes. This vegetation appeared to be healthy with no obvious signs of stress or contamination.

6.5. Asbestos

A Type 2 asbestos survey was carried out on the Site in January and February 2003. This survey located any suspected asbestos containing material and assessed the risk, with representative samples taken. An asbestos register has been compiled for the Site and is included as Appendix 12.

This register suggests that asbestos is found across the Site in the majority of buildings mainly on or around doors, ceilings and roofs. The asbestos found on Site is generally of good condition i.e. intact and is approximately 90% Chrysotile and 10% Amosite.

6.6. Boiler Houses

There are two main boiler houses on Site one in the northern area of Site within building 14 the second in the southern area of the Site within building 60. There are several additional smaller boiler houses servicing individual buildings. Building 4 houses three oil fired boilers one of which has been decommissioned. A boiler house is contained A0787-00-R2-1 21 OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental

within building 60 and contains two gas fired boilers both of which can alternatively use oil.

Heating for the MU Store is supplied via a boiler housed in a small building just outside the south-east corner of the main building. The boiler is fuelled by the 10 000litre gas oil above ground storage tank described in section 6.3.2.

Building 88 houses a boiler house that is no longer in use. This was a gas fired boiler.

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7. UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE

7.1. UK Defence History

Records of air raids, bomb damage, casualties and the locations of unexploded ordnance (UXO) are rarely released into public domain. Details relating to these records are often difficult to locate.

The records, which were compiled during WWII, were only as detailed and as accurate as the availability of time, personnel and the ease of access to information would allow. Densely populated areas such as those associated with the major cities tended to have a greater number of records than those produced for the more provincial or rural areas.

Press reports and local information often supplemented official records. This source of information was sometimes discredited by being inadvertently inaccurate or purposely made inaccurate, in order to confuse enemy intelligence. Even the accuracy of classified official records is somewhat dubious. This stance has been borne out by the number of unrecorded UXO and part exploded ordnance discovered since 1945.

7.2. BAE Systems Records

BAE SYSTEMS records suggest that the German bombing campaign during WWII saw the extensive use of a series of bombs ranging in size from the relatively small 50 kg bomb through 250, 500, 1,000, 1,400 and 1,800 kg bomb to the largest at 2,500 kg.

The most numerous dropped over the United Kingdom were the 50 kg, 250 kg and 500 kg bombs. Mines and incendiary bombs and a number of unclassified missiles were also released.

7.3. Air Raids

Records of air raids over the urban district of Cheshire have been examined and show that the area was not heavily bombed during WWII. Data on the average bombing frequency for the regional area has been obtained and is detailed below. The information is based upon government bomb census data, which generally correlates with other data obtained from local sources such as local air raid records, and local history data. It should be noted that there is the possibility of errors in the data given that the information is compiled from one source.

The following tables summarise the HE bombs, Incendiary bombs and other ordnance that fell on the urban districts of Cheshire during WWII. The available records differentiate between exploded (X) and unexploded (UX) devices.

COUNCIL AREA BOMB (kg High Explosive)

Type 50 250 500 1,000 1,800+ Mine

Urban Districts X 8 14 2 0 0 24

Cheshire UX 0 0 2 0 0 1

Typical failure rate for UXO 0% 0% 50% 0% 0% 4%

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COUNCIL AREA Type I.B. Other I.B. PHOS. Unclassified Missiles

Urban Districts X 339 5 0 509

Cheshire UX 0 0 101

Typical failure rate for UXO 0% 0% 0% 16.5%

Table 4. UXO Frequency. On average the typical failure rate during WWII was approximately 10% for high explosive bombs and approximately 50% for incendiary bombs. The bomb data for the Cheshire urban districts suggests the failure rate is approximately 8 % for HE bombs which correlates with this theory.

7.4. Ministry of Defence (MOD) Records

Enquiries have been made to the MoD to establish if they have any records relating to the removal of any unexploded ordnance on the Site or the presence of any UXO or finally abandoned bombs within the immediate vicinity.

No records were found regarding the removal of UXO from the Site, or in the immediate surrounding area.

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8. ADDITIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

8.1. Introduction

Data relating to the Site, surrounding land use and environmental setting has been sourced from the Environment Agency, Local Authorities and other sources. The data is presented in the Envirocheck report included as Appendix 4. BAE Systems Environmental have reviewed the information in terms of the activities that may affect the Site and our observations are detailed in the following paragraphs.

8.2. Observations

8.2.1. Discharge Consents

On-Site

The Envirocheck records ten discharge consents held on the Site, five of these consents have had their authorisation revoked or they have lapsed.

Three discharge consents are held by Avro International Aerospace the first is located in the centre of the Site. This consent allows the discharge of treated effluent from the sewerage disposal works at the customer training centre to Red Brook. The second is located in the south eastern area of Site, this consent is for the discharge of treated effluent from the septic tank at the clubhouse of the airfield into Red Brook. The third Discharge consent is located in the southern of the Site, this also is for the discharge of treated effluent into Red Brook.

The Envirocheck locates a discharge consent within the southern area of Site, although the address gives New Hall Farm and cottage as the location, this is situated off Site adjacent to the southern boundary. The permit allows the discharge of treated effluent to Red Brook.

The fifth discharge consent located on the Site is held by HE Moss & Sons, Shirdhold Farm for the discharge of treated effluent into Red Brook. Site personnel have confirmed that this discharge consent is not actually on Site.

Off-Site within 500m

There are a total of 14 currently active discharge consents within 500m of the Site boundary. Seven of these consents are held by United Utilities for discharges at Wooley Avenue, Lostock Road located 2m and 68m to the north east of Site, Swan Close located 395m to the northeast of Site, Poynton Industrial estate located 273m to the northeast and a water treatment Site located 478m to the south of the Site. These consents are for treated effluent, storm emergency overflow and trade discharge.

Six of the fourteen discharge consents are all from four domestic residences located between 297m and 344m to the west of the Site for the release of treated effluent to Booth Green Brook.

The final Discharge consent is held by Nwt Group Plc located 319m to the northwest of the Site (C7) for the discharge of final effluent to Spa Brook.

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Off-Site between 501-1000m

A total of 10 currently active discharge consents are located between 501m and a 1000m from the Site boundary. Details of these consents are to be found within the Envirocheck Report.

8.2.2. Pollution incident to controlled waters

On Site

A total of seven pollution incidents to controlled waters have been reported on Site within the Envirocheck Report all of which were recorded as minor incidents.

Four of the seven incidents refer to diesel, oils or aviation fuel spills polluting the catchment area of the River Dean. The first of these incidences occurred on 27th November 1996 adjacent to the main runway towards the centre of the Site and involved the release of diesel. The second incident occurred on 10th December 1995 adjacent to building 38 (Hangar 5) and involved the release of aviation fuel. The third incident occurred on 22nd April 1994 and was located to the south of building 46 (Engineering Test Facility and Impact Test Building) and involved the release of diesel. The fourth incident occurred on 12th January 1994 and was located at building 40 (Aircraft Surface Finishing Centre) this incident involved the release of oils.

An incident occurred on 11th April 1994 located in the south eastern area of Site records an algae bloom, the Envirocheck indicates this incident was located within the area of Site leased for farming. Organic waste was noted within Red Brook, this incident occurred on 22nd January 1996 and was located adjacent to building 49 (Ex Flight Sheds Restaurant and Surface Finishing Offices located in the south of the Site. The final pollution incident occurred on 17th December 1991 and was located within the north eastern area of Site here sewage polluted the catchment area of Micker Brook.

In addition to the pollution incidents detailed within the Envirocheck report site personnel provided information on three extra pollution incidents that have occurred on the Site. All three of the pollution incidents are recorded as minor incidents. This information includes two warning letters and a letter of intent to invoice all sent by the Environment Agency and refers to the three pollution incidents that occurred on the Site, these letters are included within Appendix 13.

The first of these incidents occurred on the 14th July 2005 and involved the pollution of Red Brook, this letter does not detail the pollutant although it is understood the incident involved the accidental release of fire fighting foam from Hangar 3A.

The second incident is dated the 5th February 2006. The Environment Agency letter gives very few details on the incident, although it is understood a leak in an underground pipe that was connected to Boiler House (building 60) lead to the release of fuel oil via underground drains to Red Brook.

The third incident was reported on 18th July 2007 and involved the release of fuel oil into an un-named tributary of the River Dean. The exact source of this incident is unknown although it is understood that it may have been from the demolition of building 32 on Site. This building was previously located adjacent to the north west boundary of the Site and the demolition involved the removal of a heating oil tank and a boiler house, all waste was removed from Site by Veolia.

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It is understood that there has been no remedial work undertaken at the seven locations of pollution incidents to controlled waters.

Off Site

Two significant incidents occurred off Site these were located; 214m to the north-west of the Site and involved the release of unknown sewage into Poynton Brook. These incidents were dated 8th May 1991 and 29th June 1993.

8.2.3. Authorised Processes

There are no authorised processes on Site.

There are 3 registered Integrated Pollution and Control permits located within 250m of the Site. The first permit is held by Senior Aerospace Bwt located 109m to the south east of the Site, the permit deals with adhesive coating processes. The second permit is held by Cemex Northern Limited located 117m to the south east, this permit deals with the processes involved in blending, packing, loading and use of cement. The third permit is held by Api Laminates located 511m to the east of the Site, the permit covers the processes involved in the printing of flexible packaging.

There is 1 registered Integrated Pollution and Control permits located on Site. This permit dealt with coating and recoating of aircraft and aircraft components. The authorisation certificate has since been revoked.

The Envirocheck report lists 1 IPPC permits located within 500m of the Site. The entry refers to Api Laminates located 419m to the east of the Site.

8.2.4. COMAH and Explosive Sites

The Site is not classified as a Control of Major Hazards Site or an explosives site.

There is one Control of Major Hazards Site located within 1000m of the Site. This is located at Bramhall Pump Station which is owned by the Oil and Pipelines Agency located 903m to the north of the Site.

The Envirocheck Report does not detail any on site licences that refer to the oil pipeline.

8.2.5. Landfills and Waste Management Facilities

There are no registered landfills or waste management facilities on Site.

The Envirocheck lists five historic landfills within 500m of the Site. A landfill was located at Mill Lane Adlington located 262m to the south of the Site and was operational until 1991.

Upper Swinesay Farm located 307m to 441m has two licences for landfills and operated until 1990. Located 244m east of the Site was the location of a landfill at Hope Lane, Adlington this landfill was operational until 1992. Street Lane Farm landfill was located 332m east of the Site and was operational until 1992. All the above landfills dealt with inert waste.

A further three historic landfills are recorded between 501m and 1000m of the Site, further details of these landfills are included within the Envirocheck Report.

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A total of ten currently Registered landfill sites are listed by the Envirocheck located within 1000m of the Site, although none of these sites are currently operational. The Envirocheck indicates a landfill located between 208m and 309m to the north of the Site located around Upper Swineseye Farm the licences that refer to this site have lapsed. This landfill accepted non-hazardous mainly construction waste.

One waste management facility is listed by the Envirocheck report, located 513m to the east is categorised as taking Non- biodegradable waste.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council were contacted with a request for information regarding contaminated land issues after reviewing available information they concluded that the Site is not within 250m of land which is or has been historically used to deposit waste. The council also had no records available that the Site had been affected by fly tipping. A copy of this review is included as Appendix 14.

8.2.6. Fuel Station Entries

There are three fuel stations located within 1000m of the Site, these are listed as follows; Brookfield Hydro Motors Service Station located 781m to the north east of the Site, Poynton Service Station located 909m to the north east of Site and Woodford service Station located 609m to the east of Site.

8.2.7. Sensitive Land Use

The entire Site is an area of adopted green belt land, also the majority of the Site is unadopted Green Belt land. An area of unnamed surface water located 804m to the south west of the Site is listed as a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone.

8.2.8. Sites Current Status under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has responded that the Site is not currently declared as statutorily contaminated land as defined by Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The council also state that the Site and surrounding sites have not been the focus of any investigations under Part IIa and to date have not been ruled out of any future investigations.

8.2.9. Trade Directory Entries

The following contemporary trade directory entries are listed within the Envirocheck Report within 500m of the Site.

A woodworking company is located adjacent to the south western boundary.

A metal heat treatment company located 21m to the northwest.

Precision engineers located 43m to the east.

A road haulage services located 100m and 132m to the east.

A pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor is located 131m to the northeast.

A mould manufacturer is located 188m to the east.

A door manufacturer is located 192m to the east.

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A supplier of window frames is located 229 to the east.

Printers are located 327m to the east and 421m to the south east.

A rubber and plastics manufacturer is located 379m to the east.

A supplier of packaging and wrapping is located 419m to the east.

Eads Astrium Ltd a manufacturer is located 472m to the east.

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9. INITIAL CONCEPTUAL SITE MODEL

9.1. Introduction

A Conceptual Site Model (CSM) is a simplified representation of the environmental conditions at the Site and its surroundings that enables third parties to build up a picture of the Site. The development of a CSM highlights data gaps, (identifying the data which requires to be collected through site investigation) and is iterative with further data collection phases. The CSM has been developed with regard to the guidance provided in the Environment Agency report NC/99/38/2 and other referenced documents.

Prior to 1921 the Site was largely undeveloped with the area occupied by agricultural land containing numerous ponds. In its early development the airfield was significantly smaller than the present Woodford Aerodrome site today occupying just the area to the north of New Hall Farm and was originally an open grassed landing area with a hangar originally from Alexandra Park Manchester. Currently the main activities undertaken at the Site include the assembly of aircraft and stripping and painting of aircraft parts.

The works currently undertaken at the Site are highly controlled and regulated. In addition the building floor slabs and hardstanding across much of the Site will provide some protection in the event of accidental release in any case.

There was no obvious visual evidence of any substances escaping or penetrating the floor slabs and hardstanding during the walkover. There is the potential for point sources of contamination associated with current and previous activities. These include the current sources such as fuel storage and known pollution incidents at the Site along with the oil pipeline. The historic sources include chemical usage, use and storage of fuels and potential landfill areas.

Geological records and borehole logs indicate the majority of the Site to be underlain by Glacial Till. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Peat are identified within the centre of the Site. Fluvio-Glacial Gravel deposits are located to the east and south east of the Site. Glacial Sand and Gravel and Alluvium deposits are mapped adjacent to the southern boundary of the Site.

The solid geology beneath the Site comprises of Pebble Beds to the east of the Site and Upper Mottled Sandstone to the west of the Site. Both stratum form part of the Sherwood Sandstone Group, of Permian Triassic age. Four faults are indicated on the geological map across the Site, running in a north – south direction.

Groundwater occurrence within the areas of Glacial Drift is considered to be restricted to any sand and gravel horizons within any Glacial Till deposits that may not be laterally continuous. The Environment Agency classifies the Glacial Till as a Non-aquifer due to its negligible permeability. The Glacial Sands and Gravels are classified as a Secondary B Aquifer due to their moderate permeability.

The Permian Triassic strata on Site are recorded as a Principal Aquifer. The Site is also within a Zone II and a Zone III Source Protection Zone. Two source protection boreholes are located within 1000m of the Site, borehole reference NW001 is located 375m to the south of Site and borehole NW148 is located 705m to the northwest of the Site.

Groundwater levels recorded within BH SJ88 SE/3 were noted as 14mbgl with a rest level of water at 13mbgl within the solid geology.

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The Envirocheck indicates that the Environment Agency has confirmed the Site to within a Zone II and a Zone III Source Protection Zone. Two source protection boreholes are located within 1000m of the Site, borehole reference NW001 is located 375m to the south of Site and borehole NW148 is located 705m to the northwest of the Site.

Six named surface water courses are located on the Site, the majority of which flow to the River Dean located in the southern area of Site, an exception to this is Poynton Brook to the east of the Site as this is a tributary to the Mersey.

9.2. Sources

9.2.1 Potential contamination sources on the Site include:

Description Location and geometry Contaminants

Contaminants within Made Located in areas filled to create a Potentially a wide range of Ground placed during the new development platform. predominantly inorganic construction of the factory. contaminants if constructed from general fill containing anthropogenic derived material rather than reworked natural soils.

AST’s, associated pipework and Contamination is most likely around Aviation fuel, diesel, gas oil and engines. the fuel tanks and around pipework de-icer. (above and below ground). The tank locations are detailed within Appendix 10.

Historic Fuel tanks (UST’s) Contamination is most likely around Aviation fuel, petrol and diesel. associated pipework and the tanks and associated pipework engines containing aviation fuel (above and below ground). The and diesel. tank locations are detailed within Appendix 10.

Historic landfill area within pit Located in the current area of the Potentially a wide range of area. golf course. The landfill area is contaminants from construction detailed on Appendix 8. waste to scrapped aircraft components, paints, ground gas, asbestos and possible unknown contaminants.

Ash fill area near coal fired The exact location of the ash is Contaminants may include boiler house as detailed in the unknown, although it is suspected heavy metals including Cu, Ni Environ Report. that it may be located around and Pb, PAH’s, sulphides and building 88 in the southern area of sulphates. Site

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Description Location and geometry Contaminants

Soils contaminated by the paint A potential exists for localised Paints (organic and inorganic store, painting and stripping contamination around buildings 10, pigments containing metals), processes. 12, 40 and 99. solvents, VOC’s acids and alkalis.

Known pollution incidents A potential exists for localised Contaminants include oils, contamination around spill areas. diesel, aviation fuel, fire fighting The locations of known spills are foam and sewerage. detailed below.

A spillage of diesel adjacent to the main runway towards the centre of Site.

The release of aviation fuel adjacent to Hangar 5.

The spillage of diesel at building 46.

Accidental release of oils at building 40.

An algae bloom was reported in the southern area of Site.

Organic waste spill adjacent to building 49.

Sewerage polluting the eastern area of Site.

Fire fighting foam accidentally released from Hangar 3A.

Fuel oil spill from building 60.

Release of fuel oil believed to be in the location of building 32.

Aviation fuel spill at the southern fuel farm.

Contaminants from the The north east section of Site If there was a poor standard of Ordnance depot around the MU around the MU Store, the area house keeping within these Store, explosives store and surrounding and within building 106 locations there is the potential positions of anti-aircraft guns. and in any anti-aircraft positions for explosives and explosive such as pill boxes. devices in the near surface soils.

Contaminants from the Known building demolitions include Demolition rubble cleared from demolition of Site buildings that buildings 30, 32, 74, 75, 80, 101, Site, but possible asbestos, were undertaken at the Site. 102, 103, 104 & 105.. inorganic and organic contamination on or near surface.

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Description Location and geometry Contaminants

Contaminants resulting from the Within the area of the compass TPH’s, PAH’s, sulphides and use of the old fire training pit. swing base located in the southern sulphates. area of Site.

Additional boiler houses. Within the area of the boiler houses Ash, clinker, heavy metals, and the heating oil tank. PAH’s, sulphides and sulphates.

Plating Shop and associated Within the area of the plating shop Contaminants may include activities (e.g degreasing, (Building 18). metals, solvents, VOC’s, acids alchroming etc) and alkalis.

Contaminants arising from the Potential contamination in buildings Contaminants may include garage processes. 78, 17, 48, 87, 90 and 96. metals, PAH’s, BTEX and diesel.

Contaminants within Made Located across the Site. Ponds are Potentially a wide range of Ground where new site levels detailed on the 1873 historical site predominantly inorganic required infilling of the existing plans. contaminants if constructed from ponds. general fill containing anthropogenic derived material rather than reworked natural soils.

Depending on the nature of the infill, ground gas may arise from decomposition of putrescible materials.

Sewerage treatment areas. Contamination around tanks and Contaminants may include a associated pipework. range of organic and inorganic compounds, methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide.

Waste storage areas (both Contamination around the two Potentially a wide range of historic and current waste waste stations located in the north materials, including solvents, storage). west and north east. paints, acids and alkalis.

Substations. Within the local area of each of the Cooling oils containing PCBs thirteen substations (historic use of PCB’s).

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Location and geometry Contaminants Description A potential exists for localised Contaminants may include oils, Airfield contamination around the hangars greases, lubricants, hydraulic and apron/taxiway areas of the Site fluids, degreasing agents, and also around maintenance thinners and related cleaning areas and locations where agents, engine coolants, refuelling or de-icicng of aircraft is antifreezes and de-icers, undertaken. batteries, acids and alkalis and detergents for washing. Radiological contaminants such as radium may have arisen from the maintenance or disposal of dials from broken instruments although no evidence of this activity has been found.

A potential exists for localised Contaminants may include Chemical storage contamination around any areas of solvents, VOC’s, acids and chemical storage. alkalis.

Located to the north east of the Hydrocarbons, organo-lead Oil Pipeline Site. The pipeline is detailed on all compounds, organo-sulphur of the service plans. compounds, organic acids, phenols, PCB’s.

Table 5 - Potential Sources

9.2.2 Potential off Site contamination sources:

Potential contamination sources off the Site include ground gas from the six historic areas of fill located within 500m of the Site.

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Potential Receptors

Receptor Description Shallow ground water in the Glacial Till or perched Controlled Waters (Groundwater) in Made Ground and the deeper groundwater within the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer. Controlled Waters (Surface Water) The six surface waters located on the Site. Future site users following redevelopment (residential, open space and commercial end Humans uses) and maintenance personnel.

Property Building fabric, underground services.

Table 6 - Potential Receptors

9.2. Potential Pollutant Linkages

In the context of land contamination, there are three essential elements to any risk:

• a source – a substance which is in, on or under the land and has the potential to cause harm or to cause pollution of controlled waters

• a receptor – in general terms, something that could be adversely affected by a contaminant, such as people, an ecological system or a water body, and

• a pathway – a means by which a receptor can be exposed to, or affected by, a contaminant.

These have been described in the preceding sections. However, although each of these elements can exist independently, they only pose a potential risk where they are linked together – so that a particular source (contaminant) affects a particular receptor through a particular pathway. The term potential pollutant linkage is used to describe a particular combination of source-pathway-receptor for the preliminary risk assessment.

The following potential pollutant linkages have been identified.

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Source Pathway Receptor

Contaminants within Made Ground or, Shallow groundwater in the Migration superficial deposits and local Soils contaminated by explosive through surface waters and deeper storing at ordnance depot, unsaturated groundwater within the aquifer zone (particularly in the east and south Soils contaminated by the painting and east of the Site). paint stripping processes, Shallow groundwater in the Soils contaminated by the substations superficial deposits, deeper Migration via or, groundwater within the aquifer underground (particularly in the east and south services Soils contaminated by activities east of the Site)and local surface associated with the Boiler houses or, waters.

Soils contaminated by fuel storage Migration via Local surface waters. leaks from UST’s or AST’s and groundwater associated pipelines or, Future site users and Ingestion Soils contaminated by the garage or, maintenance workers.

Soils contaminated by the old fire Inhalation of Future site users and training pit or, vapour maintenance workers.

Soils contaminated by known spills or,

Soils contaminated by sewerage tanks or sewerage treatment or,

Soils contaminated by waste storage areas or,

Soils contaminated by the possible landfill or, Future site users, maintenance Direct contact workers, buildings and services Soils contaminated by the plating shop or,

Soils contaminated by the airfield or,

Soils contaminated by the oil pipeline,

Soils contaminated from the previous demolition of buildings.

Gas generated from Alluvium or Made Future Site users including Ground in the infilled ponds maintenance workers Migration via Gas generated from the possible on soil and service site and also off site areas of fill. trenches Buildings (where present) and underground structures

Table 7 – Potential Pollutant Linkages

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9.3. Limitations and Uncertainties

Risk levels associated with each of the pollutant linkages and the assessment of whether a particular linkage is unacceptable reflects the available data and at this stage is necessarily conservative.

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10. PRELIMINARY RISK ASSESSMENT

10.1. Introduction

Risk assessment is the essential starting point in managing risks. It provides a structured mechanism for identifying potential problems and making judgments about the consequences.

The purpose of this first stage of risk assessment is to develop a conceptual model of the Site (Section 9) and establish whether or not there are potentially unacceptable risks. There are four key stages to assessing such risks:

Hazard identification – establishing contaminant sources, pathways and receptors (the conceptual model)

Hazard assessment – analyzing the potential for unacceptable risks (what linkages could be present, what could the effects be)

Risk estimation – trying to establish the magnitude and probability of the possible consequences (what degree of harm might result and to what receptors, and how likely is it)

Risk evaluation – deciding whether the risk is unacceptable

10.2. Criteria for Preliminary Risk Assessment

The criteria for deciding if there are potentially unacceptable risks depend on the individual site under consideration and the context of the risk assessment.

The characterisation of the Woodford Aerodrome Site needs to address a number of objectives. These include:

determine if the site is contaminated

determine whether the contamination is causing, or is likely to cause, contamination of groundwater

provide data for input to a human health and controlled waters environmental assessment

In this context, it would be unacceptable if there were any pollutant linkages which either meant that the site would meet the statutory definition of contaminated land under Part IIA of The Environmental Protection Act 1990, or, as part of the development control process, pose an unacceptable risk to Site users, visitors, neighbours or controlled waters.

10.3. Summary of Unacceptable Risks

At present no data or information has been reported to suggest the Site is having an adverse impact on potential receptors’.

Preliminary observations and previous reporting suggests that the current Site activities do not appear to be creating excessive contamination issues. However, given the history of the Site and the large number of potential sources of

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contamination (e.g. fuel storage, historic landfilling, metal treatment processes, paint and paint stripping processes and airfield practices etc.) there remains the possibility that on Site sources of contamination may exist. In addition given the sensitivity of the groundwater and the fact that there are six surface water courses on the Site there are plausible pathways to receptors.

The occurrence of any contamination is most likely to be within localised hotspots around drains and floor slabs of the former process buildings, around fuel storage tanks, former ponds and areas of previous landfilling. However; if there are point sources the possibility of migration of these contaminants cannot be discounted.

This is of particular concern within the eastern and south eastern areas of Site where the geological map indicates sandstone outcropping and as such there is greater potential for contaminants to reach the deeper groundwater within the aquifer. Possible sources of contamination within this area include the following,

Southern fuel farm which comprises of five tanks containing aviation fuel.

Building 40 the Surface Finishing Centre with associated acid waste water tank.

Building 48 the Garage.

Waste fuel, de-icer, gas oil and diesel tanks located behind the Garage.

Sewerage treatment plant (located to the south east of the Site).

Historic UST’s located behind building 94, these where previously filled with fuel but now filled with water for emergency water supplies.

MU Store.

Gas oil tank located to the east of the Site adjacent to MU Store.

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11. RECOMMENDATIONS

To address the potential distribution of contaminants, and the pollutant linkages that may be associated with them, it is recommended that an intrusive investigation is undertaken.

Extensive guidance is available on sampling strategies for contaminated land investigations (e.g.CLR4 (1994), BS10175 (2001) and EA technical Report P5-066 (2001).Two approaches are available:

Targeted or judgmental sampling, which focuses on known or suspected sources of contamination such as storage tanks

Non-targeted sampling which aims to characterise the contamination status of an area or volume of ground

In each case, it is necessary to select the frequency and distribution of sampling points. This can only be achieved by considering the conceptual site model and the context of the site characterisation and addressing issues such as: the principal pathways for contamination; the typical sizes and spacings of potential or actual source areas; the mobility of the contaminants; and the required level of confidence in the results, particularly with regard to remediation.

The annotated site layout plan in Appendix 8 identifies a number of potential sources of contamination.

The investigation should concentrate on establishing firstly whether a contamination source exists at the Site and whether these have caused, are causing or are likely to cause harm or pollution. The investigation should comprise the sampling of soils (including appropriate leachability testing of soils) and initially shallow groundwater’s with testing for contaminants of concern and subsequent tiered risk assessments. In addition surface water sampling would be beneficial with sampling on and off the Site to access if the Site is impacting on the quality of the local surface waters.

The investigation also needs to determine the depths of drift cover across the Site. The hydrogeological significance of the Glacial Till is that it significantly inhibits recharge to the underlying solid geology. This is due to the negligible permeability of the Glacial Till.

An intrusive investigation would also assist in setting an environmental baseline for the Site from which future potential environmental impacts can be measured.

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Reference has been made to the following sources of information

Geological and Hydrogeological

Reference Title Scale BGS Map, Sheet 98 (Solid) 1:50,000 BGS Map, Sheet 98 (Solid and Drift) 1:50,000 Environment Agency, Groundwater Vulnerability of 1:100000 Derbyshire and North Staffordshire, Sheet 17 Historical mapping and photographs

Reference Title Scale 25175992-1-1 Envirocheck Report – Historical Mapping Various 58/709-4365/3-06- Aerial photograph N/A 51

Previous Reports

EAG ENVIRON, Initial Environmental Review, British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Woodford. Report Reference R-C3027.doc. March 1999.

BAE SYSTEMS Environmental Services. Desk Study for Potential Contamination at BAE Systems Woodford. Report reference P546-00-R1. July 2002.

Legislation and Statutory Guidance

Part IIA Environmental Protection Act 1990

DETR Circular 01/2006 ‘Environmental Protection Act 1990: Part 2A Contaminated Land’ September 2006

Contaminated Land (England) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/227)

Technical Guidance

BS10175:2001 - ‘Investigation of Potentially Contaminated Sites’

DEFRA and EA (2001), ‘Environment Agency guidelines to third parties on pollution of controlled waters for Part IIA of the EPA 1990’.

DEFRA and EA (2002) CLR 8 - ‘Potential Contaminants for the Assessment of Contaminated Land’

DEFRA and EA (2002) Soil Guideline Values for Individual Soil Contaminants CLR 10 GV1-10

DEFRA and EA (2004) CLR 11 - ‘Model Procedures for the Management of Land Contamination’.

DoE Industry Profiles (1995): Chemical Works: Explosives, Propellants and Pyrotechnics Manufacturing Works. A0787-00-R2-1 41 OCTOBER 2011 Woodford Aerodrome, Cheshire BAE Systems Operations Ltd. BAE Systems Environmental

DoE (1994) CLR 2 - ‘Guidance on Preliminary Site Inspection of Contaminated Land’

DoE (1994) CLR 3 - ‘Documentary Research on Industrial Sites’

DoE (1994) CLR 4 – ‘Sampling Strategies for Contaminated Land’

ODPM (2004) ‘Planning Policy Statement 23: Planning and Pollution Control’

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REPORTING CONDITIONS

It is emphasised that a Preliminary Risk Assessment for Land Contamination can only indicate the potential for contamination to be present on the Site. This Preliminary Risk Assessment for Land Contamination aims to highlight potential pollutant linkages in line with current industry guidance.

The report refers to the conditions present at the Site at the time of the study. No liability can be accepted by BAE Systems Environmental for any future changes of Site conditions. It should be noted that BAE Systems Environmental has relied on the accuracy of the information contained in the documents consulted and is in no circumstances responsible for the accuracy of such information or data supplied.

This report has been specifically prepared without the benefit of knowing the intentions of third parties and therefore should not be used by such organisations without prior consultation with BAE Systems Environmental.

A0787-00-R2-1 43 OCTOBER 2011 Figure 1

Site Location Plan BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. Figure 2

Site Layout Plan BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. Figure 3

Extract of Geological Map Reproduced from Geological Map Sheet 98, 1:50,000, 1974, by permission of the British Geological Survey. IPR/28-32C CSL British Geological Survey. Copyright NERC. All rights reserved. This Map is for identification purposes only and should not be relied upon for accuracy. Reproduced from Geological Map Sheet 98, 1:50,000, 1974, by permission of the British Geological Survey. IPR/28-32C CSL British Geological Survey. Copyright NERC. All rights reserved. This Map is for identification purposes only and should not be relied upon for accuracy. Reproduced from Geological Map Sheet 98, 1:50,000, 1974, by permission of the British Geological Survey. IPR/28-32C CSL British Geological Survey. Copyright NERC. All rights reserved. This Map is for identification purposes only and should not be relied upon for accuracy. Figure 4

Extract of Groundwater Vulnerability Map

Appendix 1

Site Walkover Photographs BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. .

. BASED UPON THE ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP WITH THE SANCTION OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. CROWN COPYRIGHT RESERVED. THIS MAP IS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR ACCURACY. Appendix 2

BGS Logs – Superficial Deposits

Appendix 3

BGS Logs – Solid Geology