Pebsham Household Waste Recycling Site – Phase 1 Environmental Desk Study Prepared by: Jacobs Miller House, Lower Stone Street, Maidstone, ME15 6GB, UK Tel: +44 (0)1622 666000 Fax: +44 (0)1622 695085 Project Number: B0780600 May 2008 Document control sheet Client: Veolia Project: Pebsham Household Waste Recycling Site Job No: B0780600 Title: Phase 1 Environmental Desk Study Prepared by Reviewed by Approved by FINAL NAME NAME NAME Elizabeth Auger Peter Rodd Jane Thrasher A01 DATE SIGNATURE SIGNATURE SIGNATURE May 2008 Copyright Jacobs U.K. Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be copied or reproduced by any means without prior written permission from Jacobs U.K. Limited. If you have received this report in error, please destroy all copies in your possession or control and notify Jacobs U.K. Limited. This report has been prepared for the exclusive use of the commissioning party and unless otherwise agreed in writing by Jacobs U.K. Limited, no other party may use, make use of or rely on the contents of this report. No liability is accepted by Jacobs U.K. Limited for any use of this report, other than for the purposes for which it was originally prepared and provided. Opinions and information provided in the report are on the basis of Jacobs U.K. Limited using due skill, care and diligence in the preparation of the same and no warranty is provided as to their accuracy. It should be noted and it is expressly stated that no independent verification of any of the documents or information supplied to Jacobs U.K. Limited has been made. Contents 1 Introduction 1-1 1.1 Background 1-1 1.2 Report Objectives 1-1 2 Scope of Work 2-1 3 Site Description 3-1 3.1 Site Location 3-1 3.2 Site and Area Layout 3-1 3.3 Site Reconnaissance – Current Site Use 3-1 3.4 Potential Contaminant Sources – Onsite 3-2 4 Environmental Setting 4-3 4.1 Published Information on the Environmental Setting 4-3 4.2 Published Geology 4-3 4.3 Published Hydrogeology and Offsite Investigations 4-3 4.4 Hydrology 4-4 4.5 Environmentally Sensitive Areas 4-4 5 Historical Review 5-1 5.1 Historical Map Review 5-1 5.2 Envirocheck Regulatory Review 5-2 5.3 Review of Local Authority Records 5-4 5.4 Previous Site Investigations 5-7 5.5 Summary of Historical Records 5-7 5.6 Potential Historical Sources of Contamination 5-8 6 Summary 6-1 6.1 Site Description Summary 6-1 6.2 Proposed Development and Assumptions 6-1 6.3 Potential Contaminant Sources 6-1 6.4 Plausible Exposure Pathways 6-2 6.5 Receptors 6-2 6.6 Potential Plausible Pollutant Linkages 6-2 7 Conclusions and Recommendations 7-1 7.1 Conclusions 7-1 7.2 Recommendations 7-1 8 References 8-1 Appendix A - Figures Appendix B - Photographs Appendix C - Envirocheck report and BGS information 1 Introduction Jacobs UK Ltd was commissioned by Veolia to undertake an environmental desk study on the proposed Household Waste Recycling Site (HWRS) located in Pebsham (Grid Ref. 577010E, 108730N), East Sussex, approximately 600m north of the A259. The purpose of the study was to identify actual and potential sources of soil and groundwater contamination that may have impacted the environmental condition of the proposed development site as a result of current and historical activities on site and in the vicinity, and to advise on other potential significant environmental liabilities as appropriate. This has been undertaken in line with the requirements of Planning Policy Statement 23: Planning and Pollution Control (PPS23). The site location is shown in Figure 1 (Appendix A). 1.1 Background A new Household Waste Recycling Site is proposed on currently undeveloped land to the south of the existing Waste and Recyclables Transfer Station (WRTS). The current recycling site which this would replace is located on the east side of the road; the site has a temporary planning permission which expires in Autumn 2008. The new site would give improved access for vehicles and provide an improved service with areas for different types of recyclable materials. 1.2 Report Objectives The objective of this report is to assess any contamination issues and make recommendations for further work to aid the design and development of the HWRS. The scope of work undertaken within this report is described in Section 2. 1-1 2 Scope of Work This study has been undertaken to assess the risks from land contamination in relation to the development of the proposed Pebsham Household Waste Recycling Site in line with the requirements of PPS23. PPS23 states that, “it remains the responsibility of the landowner/developer to identify land affected by contamination and to ensure that remediation is undertaken to secure a safe development”. This report includes information to identify the land potentially affected by contamination and provide recommendations for either further intrusive works, or remediation. In preparing this report Jacobs has referred to documents including communications, reports and data obtained from various sources for the proposed site and its surrounds. This environmental report covers the following: • Site description and reconnaissance; • Historical review; • Environmental setting; • Local area study; • Conceptual Site Model (CSM) and Qualitative Risk Assessment and; • Conclusions and recommendations. 2-1 3 Site Description 3.1 Site Location The site is located (Grid Ref. 577010E, 108730N), in Pebsham, East Sussex. The site location is shown in Figure 1, Appendix A. 3.2 Site and Area Layout The site is located in a largely undeveloped area of Pebsham. The subject site covers an area of approximately 0.3ha and is an irregular shape. The site is accessed via Freshfields Road, off Bexhill Road (A259) to the south. The current site is undeveloped overgrown land. Immediately adjacent to the north is a waste and recyclables transfer station (WRTS). Beyond this there are mostly open fields, a pond and a sewage treatment works. West of the site are open fields, with a nursery and allotment gardens further to the west. South of the site is a football pitch. To the east is Pebsham Stream and Freshfields Road, beyond which is the site of the existing HWRS, and adjacent to the south of this is a playing field including a pavilion. The Pebsham Landfill site, operated by Biffa, is located north-east of the site. The boundary for the proposed site will be on an area of grassed rough ground and adjacent to a hardstanding area to the south of the WRTS main buildings. 3.3 Site Reconnaissance – Current Site Use A site reconnaissance was undertaken to develop an understanding of the site layout and condition, and current on-site activities, which could have an impact on the underlying ground and groundwater. This was carried out by Elizabeth Auger of Jacobs on the 21st of February 2008. The accompanying photographs and location plan can be found in Appendices A and B. The subject site where the future HWRS would be located is currently vacant land. There is a steep gradient up from Pebsham Stream, the WRTS and the adjacent fields to the west. There is also an incline from this level up to the bund that runs adjacent to the west of the WRTS. Anecdotal evidence suggests this bund to the west and south of the WRTS may have been created from excess material deposited when the WRTS site was constructed, prior to the current occupation by Veolia. The area comprises fairly dense vegetation over the majority of the site, mainly small trees, brambles and bushes. A flat area of bare ground is located towards the northwest of the site where there were some waterlogged areas. The adjacent WRTS was accessed via an entry in the northeast corner of the site and was also viewed as part of the site walkover. The proposed HWRS cannot be accessed via the WRTS and is instead reached via an access point in the boundary fence close the entrance of the WRTS. Historic activities on the site were discussed with the WRTS Site Management. The WRTS site was formerly occupied by Reprotech, who took in waste and under heat formed this into pellets for combustion in fuel burners (labelled on the site as a 3-1 destructor). It was reported by a former County Council Environmental Health Officer that when changes were made to the processes in an attempt to cut costs, an inferior product resulted which was unstable and contained dioxins. 3.4 Potential Contaminant Sources Identified by Site Reconnaissance The following potential contaminant sources have been identified on or in the immediate vicinity of the site from the reconnaissance visit: • Potentially contaminated Made Ground from ground raising or landfilling activities within and adjacent to the subject site. • Potential ground contamination, including dioxins, from the reported historic waste processing activities on the adjacent WRTS site 3-2 4 Environmental Setting The environmental setting, which is based on a review of published information and intrusive investigations, is described in this section. 4.1 Published Information on the Environmental Setting The information listed below was used to determine the environmental setting of the site and surrounding area. The environmental setting is important because the topography, geology, hydrogeology and hydrology of the site are the main factors that influence the way in which contaminants present in the ground or groundwater can be transported on or off the site. Information for this assessment was gathered from the following sources: • British Geological Survey of Great Britain (England and Wales), Sheet 320/321 – Hastings and Dungeness, Solid and Drift Geology 1:50 000 Scale.