Tuesday 28 April 2020

Boreholes at Straitgate ‘will have groundwater levels lower than local water table’

The impact on surrounding private drinking water supplies – be they wells, springs or boreholes – is one of the most contentious aspects of the proposal by Aggregate Industries to quarry Straitgate Farm.

Over the years, we have posted about how the maximum winter water table – the MWWT, the base of any quarry at Straitgate – can not be predicted accurately. The elevation of the MWWT put forward by Aggregate Industries’ consultants Amec (now Wood) is just a model, a prediction, a guesstimate of what might be happening across some 55 acres, based on water levels recorded over a limited time from just 6 piezometers across that area. The accuracy of this model would matter less if Aggregate Industries were planning to leave a safety margin, an unquarried buffer, above this surface to protect surrounding drinking water supplies – but it is not. After all this time, AI still won’t come clean on the accuracy of the MWWT – which for most people would be warning enough.

Last May, Professor Rick Brassington Eur Geol Eur Ing BSc MSc CGeol FGS CEng MICE FCIWEM, recent winner of the Whitaker Medal "in recognition of an outstanding contribution to hydrogeology", produced an extensive and damning report which warned that "any proposals to quarry at Straitgate Farm will impact on the fragile groundwater system and cause the flows of springs to decrease and the quality of the water also to deteriorate".

As readers may remember, this report was largely ignored by the Environment Agency, which in its wisdom decided early this year that it "will not be providing further responses" in relation to Aggregate Industries’ application – before then going on to do just that, as we posted in Alternative water supplies: EA’s remit is 'objectives and outcomes, not solutions', EA "consolidates and revises" conditions – but still fails to justify position, and Another response from the EA – and a swipe at SAG.

In his report, Prof Brassington recommended that "an unquarried buffer of at least 3 m is left above the maximum water table to minimise the negative impacts", in part because "the MWWT surface cannot be modelled accurately".

Why so? There are many reasons – as we have posted about in the past – but there’s another reason too, which we have not previously highlighted, and which has obviously not been picked up by the EA either. It’s based on work by this renowned scientist almost 80 years ago:


Prof Brassington outlined the relevance of M.K.Hubbert’s work with regards to Straitgate in his report:
3.16 Hubbert (1940) produced a ground-breaking demonstration of how groundwater flows through aquifer systems based on Darcy’s law. In essence, he showed that groundwater flow is three-dimensional with a vertical component of flow. Both the depth of a borehole and its location within an aquifer have a significant influence on the water level within it. Figure 3.5 below shows how these factors impact on groundwater levels.


3.17 The figure shows groundwater flowing through an idealised aquifer from recharge areas to discharge areas in valley bottoms. Flow lines are shown as solid lines, while equipotential lines (contours of equal pressure) are hatched. The effect of this flow system on the water levels in wells gives decreasing elevations with depth in recharge areas and increasing elevations with depth in discharge areas. As a consequence, the water level in adjacent boreholes will not be the same if the depths are different.
3.18 As a result of the above, it is important to take account of the depth of the monitoring borehole or piezometer and its location in respect of the groundwater flow pattern when interpreting the elevation of a water table. This will not always be significant when looking at regional flow over an aquifer. However, in the small area of an aquifer such as being considered in this report these differences are likely to be significant. For example, fully penetrating boreholes in recharge areas will have a lower groundwater level than the local water table.
Our emphasis. Wikipedia confirms:
In an unconfined aquifer, the water level in the piezometer would not be exactly coincident with the water table, especially when the vertical component of flow velocity is significant.
How much is not exactly? According to this paper:
In the case where groundwater shows a significant vertical flow component (Fig. 4), the water level measured in a well can vary considerably (from a few centimetres to decimetres, and locally to a few metres) from the depth to the top of the saturated zone of the aquifer. This difference depends on the vertical hydraulic gradient, thus on the location of the observation well along a flow line, but also on the depth and length of the piezometer screen.




A number of boreholes have been drilled across the Straitgate site over the years. Eighteen have now been installed with piezometers. As Wikipedia also confirms, a piezometer – like the ones at Straitgate – will typically have:
a solid casing down to the depth of interest, and a slotted or screened casing within the zone where water pressure is being measured
Back in April 2015, Aggregate Industries' Hydrogeological Assessment was telling us:
To date, 11 piezometers have been installed by AI to monitor groundwater levels in the BSPB across the Straitgate site... All piezometers have been drilled into the underlying Aylesbeare Mudstone but are installed with a 3 m screened section in the BSPB... In some cases the screened section is now partially filled with sediment and it is unknown what effect this may have.
In other words, all these boreholes fully penetrate the aquifer.


That was 5 years ago. The latest HA has, for whatever reason, removed the above information.

But to confirm: Straitgate Farm is in a recharge area: rain falling on the ground surface slowly percolates through the sand and gravel to the unconfined aquifer below, to emerge many years later in springs and wells. The land is sloping, as is the water table. Dr Helen Rutter warned:
The steep hydraulic gradient combined with limited monitoring, in my opinion, is likely to result in errors in the actual depth to maximum groundwater across the site.
Here’s Amec’s conceptual cross section of the site:


And here's another representation of Hubbert’s work. It shows that water will flow from regions of higher pressure to regions of lower pressure. In areas of recharge – like at Straitgate – where there is a vertical and horizontal component to the groundwater flow, the lower pressure at the open or screened section of deeper piezometers will only be able to support a column of water (the black columns) in the borehole to an elevation lower than the immediate water table. In the example below, boreholes D and E have been drilled in the same location to different depths. The lower pressure at the bottom of piezometer E supports a column of water to a lower elevation than D. Boreholes C,E and F have been drilled to depths of equal pressure and thereby support columns of water to the same elevation.


It can therefore be seen that using water levels recorded in piezometers in recharge areas would produce a model of the water table at a lower elevation than in reality.

Aggregate Industries’ proposal to quarry down to the MWWT – modelled from groundwater levels in an area of recharge – would therefore in reality be a proposal to quarry below the level of the maximum water table. This would be unlike other operators that maintain a freeboard above the water table, where water sources are at risk.

Not only would quarrying below the water table at Straitgate risk derogating drinking water supplies for more than 100 people, including a Grade I listed manor house, and three livestock farms, it would also be contrary to the Devon Minerals Plan.

Of course, over all these many years, Aggregate Industries’ consultants have not mentioned Hubbert. They have not mentioned that the depth of a borehole and its location in respect of the groundwater flow pattern is important. They have not mentioned it, even though any hydrogeologist worth their pay grade would know about it. These consultants have not mentioned it, because it’s not in their interest, or that of their paymasters.

But why hasn't the EA – given that groundwater is one of our most precious raw materials?


It turns out that the EA – or at least, the one person overseeing this project – would rather side with consultants representing an operator hell-bent on extracting as much material as possible, over the warnings from an independent Professor responsible for writing textbooks on the subject.

Monday 27 April 2020

Exeter's roadmap to net zero

A plan detailing how Exeter could become carbon neutral by 2030 has been submitted to the City Council by Exeter City Futures:
Entitled ‘Net Zero Exeter 2030’ the plan sets out a series of practical actions that local authorities, organisations and individuals can take. The plan comes with associated carbon savings and costs, all of which Exeter will need to put in place in order to become net-zero carbon.
The launch of the plan comes amid the current COVID-19 pandemic that everyone is fighting but demonstrates that Exeter’s determination to become carbon neutral by 2030 remains of paramount importance.
Liz O’Driscoll, Managing Director at Exeter City Futures said:
“Despite the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, I’m extremely pleased to present the Net Zero Exeter 2030 Plan to Exeter City Council and the city, on how Exeter can be carbon neutral by 2030.
“It has been four years in the making with collaboration with the many different communities, institutions, organisations and individuals who make up our city.
“Everyone across Exeter has a role to play, this isn’t something that can be delivered by any local authority alone.
“This plan represents the contribution of hundreds of businesses and individuals across Exeter, who have engaged with us to set out the action plan to become a carbon-neutral city and ensure it remains one of the best places to live in the UK.

For context, Aggregate Industries' haulage plan for Straitgate would emit around 4,500 tonnes of CO2.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Coronavirus ‘makes 2008 financial crisis look like a walk in the park – and it wasn’t’


The Eurozone has been similarly affected:


Meanwhile, "32 construction companies fell into administration in March", with more likely to follow:

Legal bid to stop UK government’s £29 billion road building programme

The UK government’s £28.8 billion plan to expand Britain’s road network is set to be challenged by the same legal team which, in February, halted the Department for Transport’s plan to expand Heathrow.The Court of Appeal ruled Heathrow expansion plans were illegal because the Department for Transport’s plans did not meet its obligations under the Paris climate agreement of 2015.
Lawyers acting for Transport Action Network (TAN) have asked the Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England to scrap their five-year road building plan saying it breaches the government’s legally binding commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Clearly, plans on such a scale no longer make sense – whatever the cries of anguish from the road-building lobby and their friends from the minerals industry.

Earlier this month, it was the boss from the AA – of all unlikely organisations – that called for investment in roads to be reassessed. This week, it was the turn of the UK government’s climate change adviser, urging ministers to reconsider plans for road-building and switch the investment into broadband, arguing that Covid-19 has taught many people they can work from home "thanks to the miracle of video conferencing":
“The government mustn’t be investing in anything likely to increase carbon emissions. I expect that video conferencing will become the new normal, and we won’t return to travelling the way we did. I would spend the roads budget on fibre. You would get a huge return to the economy with people having better connections. You would save people’s time and increase their productivity.”

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Earth Day 2020

Fifty years on, will this be the year we collectively stop taking the planet for granted, degrading and exploiting its resources? Will we now, also, realise how vulnerable a species we actually are?
Fifty years ago today, the first Earth Day was marked in the United States as a peaceful call for environmental reform, following a massive oil spill off the coast of California. Half a century later, this annual day unites millions across the globe, drawing attention to the huge challenges facing our planet.
Now more than ever, Earth Day offers an opportunity for us all to reflect upon our relationship with the planet, amid the most powerful possible message that nature can surprise us at any moment, with devastating consequences for pretty much every individual. It is a time when the health of the planet and its people has never been so important.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the recovery from the pandemic must be turned into a real opportunity to do things right for the future.
While the impact of COVID-19 was both "immediate and dreadful" and countries must work together to save lives and lessen the consequences of the pandemic, he said there was "another, even deeper emergency - the planet's unfolding environmental crisis".
"Biodiversity is in steep decline. Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return.
"We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and existential threat of of climate disruption."

Friday 17 April 2020

Stronger concrete with ‘sewage-enhanced’ steel slag


The global steel-making industry produces more than 130 million tonnes of steel slag every year. This waste material is already being used to replace aggregates in concrete, but by using it to treat wastewater first, researchers have found it can then be recycled to make concrete stronger, "in a zero-waste approach to help advance the circular economy":
Engineering researchers at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia, examined whether slag that had been used to treat wastewater could then be recycled as an aggregate material for concrete.
The concrete made with post-treatment steel slag was about 17% stronger than concrete made with conventional aggregates, and 8% stronger than raw steel slag.

Climate emergency: Cornwall Council starts reform of planning policies

The Climate Change Development Plan Document, or DPD, will outline Cornwall Council’s vision to protect the environment by introducing new planning policies and strengthening existing rules to support Cornwall Council’s ambitious aim to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Like the Local Plan, the new Climate Change DPD would become a statutory planning document supporting and strengthening the policies that have already been adopted, to protect the environment.
Councillor Bob Egerton, Cornwall’s Cabinet Member for culture, economy and planning, said: "Cornwall already has a Local Plan in place with a number of adopted policies that are aimed at addressing climate change.  The DPD that we are developing will help us to be more ambitious, it will create new policies and help strengthen existing ones that address specific issues affecting Cornwall.  The legislation that supports the DPD will give additional powers to help protect our environment."

‘Copper find sparks hopes of mining revival in ‘Poldark’ country’

Efforts to mine tungsten in Devon weren’t successful. Neither were efforts to mine potash in Yorkshire. But there never seems a shortage of investors willing to favour hope over experience when there are stories of untold riches underground. This one in Cornwall may be no different:
An unexpected copper discovery in Cornwall, south-west England, has raised the prospect of a mining revival in Poldark country more than two decades after the closure of the county’s last mine drew the 4,000-year-old industry to a close.
Efforts to whet appetites of investors willing to pour cash into the ground appear to have already begun:
The drilling struck rock with a grade of 7.46 per cent copper — a high proportion for underground deposits of the metal, which are normally 2-5 per cent copper. "It’s the kind of result that has geologists jumping up and down," said John Meyer, head of research at London-based broker SP Angel.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

World economy braces for depression


According to the IMF, "this is a crisis like no other". IMF economists expect global GDP to fall by 3 per cent in 2020, the biggest drop in almost a century.
The cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined.



Construction is likely to be one of the industries worst hit.

Hedgerows: ‘it's vital we take care of what we have left’


Tuesday 14 April 2020

Construction companies urged not to delay payments

The coronavirus pandemic has hit construction projects across the UK. At the end of last month '65% of UK’s construction value was shut down'. Construction activity fell to a near 11-year low in March. April will be worse. Many companies are suffering. Aggregate Industries is likely to be one of them.

Construction companies have, however, been urged not to delay payments to suppliers. Companies that do so – warns this article – should remember one thing: what goes around, comes around:


The co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council warned:
We are clear that all construction businesses should continue to pay in accordance with agreed contractual terms. Similarly, firms should not be threatening to invoke penalty or other contractual clauses, when it should be the priority of all clients and firms to sustain the industry. Our actions at this time will be remembered. All firms should think hard about how their reputation could be damaged by not doing the right thing.
Is Aggregate Industries doing the right thing?


Wednesday 8 April 2020

Coronavirus will transform UK work and travel – says AA

The coronavirus crisis has seen a boom in video conferencing, and a slump in UK road travel "to levels not seen since 1955."

Some people think traffic is unlikely to return to pre-coronavirus levels, and that investment in roads should be reassessed. Edmund King, President of The Automobile Association, is one:
People travelling up and down motorways just to hold meetings is inefficient, expensive and not good for the environment. I think use of roads and rail and indeed bus will be reduced after this crisis.
Arguably in future, we should invest more in broadband because what this current crisis has shown is that the majority of companies can continue working from home, and it can be more efficient.
Professor Greg Marsden from Leeds University's Transport Studies Unit is another. In contrast to the government's projections of 35% traffic growth by 2055, underpinning the roads programme, he thinks a fall in traffic is more likely:
The likely drop in traffic levels post the Covid-19 crisis means that we should delay the road expansion programme and focus instead on rebuilding public transport and switching more of our vehicles to zero emissions.




Cutting UK road building would reduce the demand for aggregates and concrete from companies like Aggregate Industries and parent LafargeHolcim. Even before this crisis started – as we posted in LafargeHolcim ‘will struggle – faced with seismic costs to decarbonise’ – we asked:
Could LafargeHolcim sell its cement 'assets' one day, and move into say timber, even telecoms? It’s not as far fetched as you think.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

‘Construction has become Britain’s coronavirus villain’

Construction companies, evidently unable to maintain social distancing, continue to put their own workers and others at risk in pursuit of their bottom line. According to this article in the construction press, an infectious disease specialist for the NHS couldn't believe her eyes:
Every second vehicle was filled with builders in high-vis jackets. It didn’t make sense. The people in the vans, likely headed to densely populated construction sites, weren’t key workers – their job wasn’t essential. As an infectious disease specialist for the NHS, she was acutely aware of the catastrophic conditions Britain’s healthcare is poised to endure as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The thought that construction sites might continue to operate shocked her. Hundreds of workers mixing with each other, touching the same things, creates an environment where the virus will spread. Not just between workers on the same project, but wherever they went afterwards: the shops where they bought dinner, the faces of kids they kissed at home. This morning’s commute was supposed to be different.


Aggregate Industries – where coronavirus means 'business as usual' – has been in the firing line too:



UK construction activity


Wednesday 1 April 2020

Straitgate determination date extended for 10TH TIME

In November 2017, we posted More delays to come, and warned:

Aggregate Industries’ planning application to quarry Straitgate is unlikely to be determined anytime soon.
Lo and behold, more delays is what we got. In February of this year, we posted Delayed again. FIVE YEARS ON, how much time does AI need?

This week we were told, and the answer is apparently 7 months:
I confirm on behalf of Aggregate Industries that we are happy to agree to an extension for the period of determination from 31st March 2020 to 31st October 2020.
What will be achieved in these months – in the face of a global pandemic and the economic depression that will inevitably follow – that wasn’t achieved during the other months since the application first went live in June 2015? No one would be surprised if the answer were somewhere between zero and nothing.

MPA issues guidance on dealing with protesters

The Mineral Products Association – the trade association representing Aggregate Industries et al. – has issued guidance notes in light of the coronavirus outbreak, at safequarry.com.

In the midst of a global pandemic, and with unprecedented conditions for the construction industry and its members, the MPA saw the need to issue advice on dealing with protesters:
During this period there is a risk that employees either travelling to work or involved in work activities off-site (such as delivering materials) may encounter members of the public or protesters objecting to their activities.
The note finishes by saying "Further information relating to dealing with protests is available in the MPA Members Briefing: Protester Advice", for example should the cement/concrete sector "become a target in the future – particularly given the recent emergence of the Extinction Rebellion."

The MPA advises that:
In all cases, protestors will look to undertake hostile reconnaissance in advance of protests, so the awareness and vigilance of office/site staff remains paramount.
Operators should:
DENY individuals the opportunity to gain information
Company employees should be briefed to ensure:
they do not provide protesters with photo opportunities or sound bites with negative propaganda potential.
And finally, on a long list of measures:
PLEASE DON’T... Provide comment to any press
It’s important that MPA members get these things right. After all:
Everyone with a mobile phone is a potential cameraman/woman, who will be tweeting/blogging to a potential online audience of thousands or millions.

‘65% of UK’s construction value shut down’



Straitgate: Lives have been blighted since 1967

Planning applications for Straitgate have blighted the surrounding community on and off since 1967.

As the Background page of this blog notes, we first became involved in March 2000. Since then, local people have had to contend with two mineral plans, two public inquiries, and two planning applications.

Twenty years on, Aggregate Industries’ plans for Straitgate continue to blight lives in the local area.

Lafarge – part of LafargeHolcim, parent company of Aggregate Industries – has a history of blighting communities for years on end. We refer to a long running battle that took place in Scotland – documented in great detail by activist Alastair Macintosh, which we have gratefully relied upon for the photo and summary below.


It all started in March 1991, when a planning application was submitted to the Western Isles Island Council by Redland Aggregates for a quarry at Roineabhal, a hill near the settlement of Lingerbay on the Isle of Harris.

In June 1993, the Council was minded to grant planning permission, but the application was called-in for determination by the Secretary of State. A public inquiry took place between October 1994 and June 1995 – the longest in Scottish planning history – with the report not delivered until April 1999.

In December 1997, meanwhile, Redland was taken over by Lafarge.

In 2000, Lafarge applied for a judicial review, complaining that the delay had violated its human rights. The court of session ruled the delay was of "scandalous proportions".

In November 2000, however, the Scottish Executive rejected the Reporter's delayed recommendation that approval be granted, arguing that the inquiry had "seriously underestimated" the impact the proposal would have on the scenery. Lafarge appealed, pointing to a planning consent issued back in 1965. Another public inquiry was held.

In May 2002, it was ruled that the 1965 consent was still valid – but for only 12 acres. Lafarge appealed. In January 2004, the appeal was rejected.

In April 2004, at a meeting in Harris, Lafarge finally announced it was abandoning the quarry proposal, and, as a goodwill gesture, donated €50,000 for local sporting facilities.

Lafarge’s decision would no doubt have been influenced by the fall in demand for aggregates in the UK, but the community on the Isle of Harris had nevertheless been blighted for 13 years. As a Lafarge executive recognised – in this document prepared for the INSEAD Business School in 2008:
the complications and ramifications of the case were becoming enormous. It was all good business for lawyers, but not much to do with my job as Head of Environment for the Lafarge Group in Paris...
I was not too concerned by the environmental considerations and those related to the indelible scar on the landscape… The quarry would only eat up some 20% of Mount Roineabhal and the scar would be seen by very few people – either those travelling on the island or at sea...
But most damaging of all was the planning blight – uncertainty affecting the planning system and local people's personal investment decisions. The island had already suffered this, and would most likely suffer it for 10 more years to say the least.
From a corporate ethical perspective it was really unfair to impose this economic cost upon the islanders...
Western Isles Council's chairman of environmental services, Angus Nicolson, said the uncertainty had damaged the economic prospects of Harris and the surrounding areas:


For the future of an area to hang in the balance for 13 long years, with the consequent disincentive to other potential businesses, is, frankly, nothing short of a disgrace.
There is of course a difference between the scale of what Lafarge had in mind for the Isle of Harris and what Aggregate Industries is fighting for at Straitgate Farm.

Aggregate Industries is struggling to make the case for a million tonnes of sand and gravel at Straitgate – having spent the best part of the last 10 years and goodness knows how much on consultants and legals. As-dug material would have to be transported by road for processing, a climate-trashing 23 miles away.

Alastair Macintosh went on to join Lafarge’s Sustainability Stakeholders' Panel for a number of years. This is from the 2005 report:
The panel’s mission is to serve as "critical friends" who challenge Lafarge’s approach to corporate responsibility, suggest improvements and form each year an opinion on Lafarge’s accountability.
The panel posed the question:
What corporate policies would be necessary if nearly all new quarrying was to be ceased, and building materials were to be created almost entirely from recycled sources of material?
LafargeHolcim, still wanting to carve up farmland in East Devon, clearly didn’t read the memo.