Sunday, May 28, 2017

Part 6 : INEOS Pre-Fracking Application


Part 6 of the INEOS application is entitled "Planning Statement", but it has different sections.  I concentrate on the inital section which covers some 54 pages. 

In earlier parts I have used the numbering system for pages as shown on the Derbyshire County Council's web-site. But it is easier this time for me to use the INEOS numbering system. So for the initial list of contents, five page numbers need to be added to convert the INEOS page references to the numbering system used on the County Council's web-site. This County Council's "Planning Statement" section can be found by searching near the bottom of the page when you - click here.

This (with additions from myself) is INEOS's first list of "Contents"

1.    Introduction............................... page 1.
1.1  INEOS Company Structure...............  1. (with a map of INEOS East Midlands' License Areas.)
1.2  Regulators Responsibility..................  2. (this appears, but INEOS fail to list on their index)
1.3  Application Context........................... 3.

2. Why is INEOS exploring Shale Gas......5.

3.    Site Selection......................................7.
3.1. Analysis of existing geophysical data within our PEDL area...........................................7.
(The above includes two charts. Figure 3.1 "Extract of Local Geology". Figure 3.2 "Example Interpretation of 2D data". Figure 3.1 shows our area as being close to the Edale Gulf. There is a reference to the Edale Gulf in a book published by the British Geological Survey (BGS) which deals with the geology of the East Midlands. See page 124 here. As the reference is incomplete, I will seek to arrange for this matter to be pursued with the BGS. Does the Edale Gulf provide us with extra problems?)
3.2   Desk top analysis of environmental constraints......8.

3.3   Site specific requirements......................................10.
3.4   Site availability......................................................10.

4.      Site Description...............................11.
4.1    Site Location...................................11.
    (Figure 4.1- an ariel image of the site and surrounding area, with the proposed site outlined in red)
    (Figure 4.2 - site location : more or less the above in the form of a map.)    
4.2     Environmental Designations...........12.
     (Figure 4.3 Designation in the vicinity of the application site).
     (Figure 4.4 Extract from the British Geological Survey (BGS) data on boreholes. This is badly  printed. I will approach BGS for a proper copy)

5.      The Application.....................................................................15.
5.1    Overview of the Hydrocarbon Extraction Process ...............15.
5.2    Overview of the Planning Application..................................15,
5.3    Regulatory Framework..........................................................16.
         (Page 18  provides a list of 23 items attempting to show that INEOS have people such as the above BGS and the Coal Authority on their side. This approach has to be challenged and the material held by such bodies drawn from to challenge the INEOS application)  
5.4   Future Application Proposals.................................................19.

6.    Summary of the Environmental Report. (This section contains no maps, no figures nor the like drawn from official or other sources. Although it provides references to seek to back up its submissions. The fact that they seek to overcome potential criticisms in these areas reveals that they are on their own shaky ground.  
6.1   Noise...............................................20.
6.2   Traffic and Transport......................20.
6.3   Ecology...........................................22.
6.4   Landscape and Visual.....................22.
6.5   Surface Water and Flooding...........23.
6.6   Hydrology.......................................24.
6.7.  Archeology & Cultural Heritage....26.
6.8.  Other Issues....................................26.
6.8.1   Air Quality...................................26.
6.8.2   Contamination.............................26.
6.8.3   Human Wealth ............................26.
6.8.3   Climate Change...........................26.
(Each of the above categories are areas in which the County Council need to have links and the recourse to fully test out - and cap - such claims)

7.   Policy Analysis.................................27. (This has 20 sub-sections. But it carries no figures nor maps to back up its claims, except the following map taken from the Coal Authority which can actually be turned against INEOS's case. My version below only covers part of the orginal. The INEOS version appears at page 40 below)

 No automatic alt text available.


The areas of black crosses (including those in small back circles) show areas defined by the Coal Authority as being "Development High Risk Areas". The red rectangle has been added by INEOS to show its intended Bramleymoor Lane site. Yet it contains two of these "at risk areas" itself and is surrounded by many more.

This is the full list for this counter-productive section.
7.     Policy Analysis............................................................................27.
7.1   The Development Plan................................................................28 (the source of the above map).
7.2  The Principle of Hydrocarbon Extraction in the Countryside.....28.
        (Yet the Bramleymoor site is not pure "countryside". It is surrounding by urban territory.
          Which its development will hit - and later intends to undermine).
7.3   Building a strong, competitive economy, and; supporting a prosperous rural economy.
        (INEOS being the main beneficiaries and other benefits being outweighed by the widespread
         social costs).................................................................................29.
7.4.  Promoting sustainable transport (sounds familiar !)....................30.
7.5.  Protecting the Green Belt land (by ruining it !)...........................32.
7.6.  Meeting the challenge of flooding and coastal change (!!)..........33.
7.7.  Conserving and enhancing the natural environment
        (by first messing it up)..................................................................34.
7.7.1 Landscape (retrospective?)..........................................................34.
7.7.2 Geological conservation (via intrusion?).....................................36.
7.7.3 Soils..............................................................................................36.
7.7.4 Biodiversity...................................................................................37.
7.7.5 Pollution, Land Instability, Contamination, Pollution Control and
         Remediation, including the water environment.
        (Sounds like an admission of guilt)...............................................38.
        The map shown above is taken from page 40.
7.7.6 Noise..............................................................................................41.
7.7.7 Air Quality.....................................................................................42.
7.7.8 Lighting..........................................................................................43.
         (Yet in reality, all the above three are real problems).
7.8.   Conserving and enhancing the historical environment .................44.
7.9. Facilitating the sustainable use of minerals.....................................45.
7.10 Cumulative Impact..........................................................................46.
7.11 Hydrocarbon Specific Issues...........................................................46.
7.12 Policy Conclusions..........................................................................48.
(Section 7 makes it sound like everything will be for the best in the best of all possible worlds)

8.  Other Material Considerations...........................................................49.
8.1 The Regulatory Regimes...................................................................49.
8.2  Public Health and Public Concerns..................................................49.
8.3  Climate Change................................................................................50.
8.4  Restoration and After Care...............................................................51.
8.5  Hydraulic Fracturing.........................................................................52.
       (This section reads -  "INEOS confirms that the planning application does not propose any hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Hydraulic fracturing forms no part of this application and therefore this proposal should be assessed on its own merits". So why are they spending so much time, effort and resources on this application? It is clear where they wish this application to lead them to. The ends can not be seperated from the means.)
8.6  Monitoring..........................................................................................52.
8.7. Environmental Safety..........................................................................52.
8.8 Health and Safety.................................................................................52.
8.9 Economic Benefits and Disbenefits.......................................................53.
8.10  Conclusions.......................................................................................53.

9. Conclusion..............................................................................................54.
(Below I quote the final words of the conclusion, which need to be challenged -  We need to challenge their first point, press to change Government Policy on their second point and raise the key alternatives they miss with their third point"

"The analysis in this report has demonstrated that -
- The development accords with the relevant policies of Development Plan
- The development accords with the principles of National Policy and Guidance, being a material consideration to be afforded significant weight; and
- There are no other material considerations which indicate that the development should not be approved."

The rest of this submission is presented in the form of Appendices and are supportive of the above claims. So these can also be tackled -

Appendix 1. "Screening Request" is 19 pages long.
Appendix 2 "Screening Opinion" is 17 pages.
Appendix 3. "Outline of Abandonment (Decommissioning) and Restoration Operations. 3 pages.
Appendix 4. "Model Planning Conditions" 3 pages.
Appendix 5. Designations Maps. 3 pages.




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