Pipeline News

February 9th, 2007

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Posted by ChrisG at 12:04 pm

Following up my earlier post, it appears that the DTI has given permission to National Grid to go ahead with the second stage of the South Wales pipeline, having now accepted that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) demonstrates that likely harms resulting from the project will be mitigated. The pipeline route is directly through the Brecon Beacons National Park:

Announcing consent for the project, energy minister Lord Truscott said the potential impact of the pipeline on the Beacons had been “uppermost” in his mind.

Lord T. appears to have shown a similar level of concern to NG itself, who have of course consulted the national park authority extensively.

The Brecon Beacons Authority in fact produced a comprehensive, penetrating and intellectually forceful critique of the decision to route the pipeline. Risk assessment is obviously at the centre of any analysis of likely harms resulting from a project like this, and of the measures taken to mitigate them. Brecon Beacons’ critique centred on the selectiveness, bias and downright shoddiness of NG’s risk assessment procedures. This approach has also been taken by other interested parties (such as CAPRI, involved in trying to prevent the building of a pipeline installation at Tirley in Gloucestershire). Nonetheless, the DTI, with all these concerns ‘uppermost’ in its collective mind, has decided that the procedures used in the EIA are (in fact) perfectly fine, thankyou.

I’ve just been emailed copies of the documents outlining the justification for this consent, and once I’ve had a chance to read them, will follow this up a bit further.