Preston New Road, 25 October 2017. Photo: Alan Finney
Cuadrilla has got the go-ahead to pipe rain water falling on its fracking site near Blackpool into a local brook.
The Environment Agency (EA) said today it had approved a study by the company about the effects of discharging water from the Preston New Road site into the Car Bridge Brook and Ribble Main Drain.
The EA said the study, required by the company’s environmental permit, aimed to prevent flooding.
Cuadrilla applied in December 2017 for a change to its permit conditions. Previously, the company had to send the water by tanker to an offsite treatment facility.
The EA approved the change in April 2018, allowing Cuadrilla to process the water on site before it was piped to the brook.
The decision was opposed by local campaigners. Frack Free Lancashire said Cuadrilla “appears to be able to move the regulatory goal posts at will”.
Preston New Road was photographed in 2017 and 2018 with surface water flooding. In 2017, the EA told Cuadrilla to improve its surface water management after breaching permit conditions.
Modelling by the company showed that flooding was likely to happen first upstream of a culvert under Moss House Lane, the EA said.
The regulator said Cuadrilla had established protocols to monitor the water levels in this area. It would discharge into Carr Bridge Brook only when water levels were low enough to prevent flooding.
The protocol also set a flow rate for discharging surface water from the site, the EA added.
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
It looks to me like the EA has approved this, disposing of rain water, they have the data and are monitoring this situation theres no contamination so i don’t see a problem.
I don’t see a story here, this is bringing up a conversation which we the outsiders do not know the full facts and the independent EA have approved!
It’s not just rainwater is it? Previously this water had to be removed from site and taken to a treatment works.
So it’s not just rainwater- it contains contaminants. Also the EA are far from indepentant as you well know. That’s why you used the word independent in your commment- to make them look so. The same with Natural England- they’re all in it together.
And as for you being an outsider 😂😂😀😂😂. Stop it!!😂😂. As an ‘ousider’ are you so interested in defending this filthy toxic industry?[edited by moderator]
Richard – it is just rain water that they are talking about. If you bother to visit the site you’d know that you could virtually eat your dinner of the floor. Rain water running off the pad will be far cleaner than anything running off farm land.
Richard: it is rainwater, previously other means had to be removed and transported from site. I take it you’ve never been involved or have no know in drainage, a company is usually contracted to pumping out an interceptor in everyday drains, including road side drains, this is silt, mud and anything the council doesn’t want in the drains and also can cause floods.
Are you accusing collusion?,
i just wanted to know how you live? It wouldn’t be in a cardboard box?, or a full electric apartment utilising a power station to power your morning needs. You say filthy toxic industry?, tell me an industry which isn’t wasteful!
One mans meat is another mans poison!
Richard
You are correct. It is not just rainwater. It will contain contaminants picked up once it touches the ground, as does all rainwater.
That Cuadrilla decided to tanker it off for treatment rather than treat it on site and pop it into the ditch ( as is the norm ) was interesting.
Looks like they have seen reason ( aided by the request by the EA to improve its surface water management ) and it will cutdown on emissions and traffic.
hewes62: benefits all round for EA, Residents & Cuadrilla!!
Well done collaboration at its finest! And its not just the protesters with benefits!!
Richard – this is what you should be worrying about if soil pollution is your concern:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/ammonia-pollution-damaging-uk-land-report
“Ammonia and nitrogen pollution, mostly from farms, is harming more than 60% of the UK’s land area and hitting the most sensitive habitats for plants and wildlife hardest, a government report has found, despite there being no clear plans to monitor or reduce its impact.
More than 85% of England’s total land area receives ammonia concentrations above the critical level set to protect lichens, mosses, liverworts and similar plants – keystone species that are vital to ecosystems – while Northern Ireland is even worse, at 88%. Just over half the land in Wales is affected, and less than a fifth of Scotland.
When sites that are particularly sensitive are considered, including special areas of conservation, special protected areas, and sites of special scientific interest, England is worst hit, according to a study from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with 95% of sites overloaded with the pollutants. In Wales and Northern Ireland 89% and 85% respectively of sensitive sites suffered excess levels of nitrogen. Only Scotland had lower levels, with nitrogen above “critical load” at only 40% of sites in 2014-16.”
And you worry about a bit of rainwater run off going into a stream – after processing……
As I have said many times on this blog, you should be focusing on farming practices not oil and gas operations if groundwater, river and soil pollution is your concern. Agriculture’s impact is infinitely greater than the upstream oil and gas industry.
But of course this is not what you are really worried about is it?
Protesters against a new energy power plant converting waste to energy, and protesters a actioning against it!!
You cannot make this story up… it seem there will be alot of smell and traffic! Seems like the same as Cuadrilla was being targeted for, if this goes ahead then PNR goes ahead, simples. The energy demand is not going to go away people!
The firm has moved to calm fears about the energy plant, which has seen a protest group set up against it – Residents Against Longridge Road Energy Centre has 291 members of a Facebook group.
https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2019/06/how-huge-new-longridge-road-energy-plant-is-due-to-look-near-the-m6/
During a six-week consultation Miller Turner said emissions from the plant would be within regulatory limits and monitored by the Environment Agency.
They say any odours would be elminated by technology.
Concerns had been raised about traffic coming dwon Longridge Road, and they say any lorries not originating from Preston would be routed via the M6 avoiding residential areas.
Eli
Protesting means using all arguments available to counter the proposal. Plus various protesting strategies to weaken resolve.
Same for protesting against wind farms as fracking.
Maybe protestors against fracking will be anti antis when onshore wind gets going again?
https://stopthesethings.com/2016/10/21/wind-turbine-generated-vibrations-wrecking-ontarios-groundwater-supply/
So, residents in Ontario are against that dirty, toxic wind industry etc etc.
I quite like wind power and am sure that the issue can be engineered away. But expect to see a number of same issues raised against renewables as fossil fuel.
Much better solutions, Eli-Goth, just chuck it in the sea! LOL
A lot of Nimbys in that area. If you check out Stephen Nolan, Higher Wheelton, from a while ago they don’t even think too much of animals in the countryside.
Incineration of waste has been practised very successfully for some time in other areas and basically means that only ash goes to landfill. An up-side of that, in addition to generating electricity, is that mineral extraction sites can then be re-utilised for leisure and enhancing the environment eg. water parks rather than stuff them full of rubbish. Also, recycling becomes a great deal easier as the material for incineration separated in this way leaves obvious and simple means to deal with the rest and the public can see that and react accordingly to support it.
Emissions and traffic are no less of a problem with landfill but much easier to control at an incineration site.
Oh-just noticed on Sky News the alternative is to chuck it in the rivers!
Oh dear Matron not his old chestnut again! By old chestnut I mean the Higher Wheelton trope and not you
You clearly don’t have a clue about the PNR area as Higher Wheelton is in Chorley its not on the Fylde. As you have been informed repeatedly.
And as we have discussed ad nauseum Mr Nolan’s belly aching to the papers was regarding his neighbors objecting to a planning application for a stable block which was refused ( and refused at appeal too) because it was inappropriate development in the green belt. So absolutely nothing to do with animals in the countryside as it was to replace an existing stable block that was felt no longer fit for purpose. He sounds like a bit of a reactionary clown, much like you!
I have attached the planning inspectors decision for you to refer to but if you need an adult to explain it to you just put your hand up.
Click to access Item%203l.pdf
Click to access 17_00625_FUL-Appeal_Decision_Cover_letter___Appeal_Decision-560359.pdf
Welcome back Pavlova!
Nice to see you haven’t changed, and you are your usual abusive self. If you bothered to actually try and follow the thread you would note I was discussing the proposed waste incinerator objection with Eli-Goth.
But thanks for further demonstrating facts are just an inconvenience to antis, including we have not discussed Mr. Nolan ad nauseum because I would not supply you with the reference that caused you repeated anxiety, so neither have I been informed repeatedly.
Not very good with your recall, are you?
Money talks nothing changes .take the water to thierbackgardens
Anti-frackers make it up as they go along. More attempts at scaremongering. I think the posts on here show their battle is lost.
Exactly Jackie Matty Neil Stewart: 100%, Anti’s don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Very very funny. Fracking failed at Kirby Misperton, failed at PNR, failed at Tinker Lane and that’s not to mention the various failures before the seismic activity stopped it. In fact since Fracking restarted in England no gas has been produced and unless the government change the traffic light system it will not be produced.
Fracking never took place at Tinker lane or KM so how can it have failed? Also an article on her was whining about gas being cold vented at PNR suggesting some was produced? With your loose association with facts you might get a job working for Trump or Johnson
John you and Richard should have a chat you have a-lot in common. You don’t report common sense on your posts. Yes Judith they don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Half baked nonsense, Nothing has failed! The industry is more resilient to this that loose facts.
See fake news has spread into the UK! It seems it is now okay to post inaccurate info. or even to put it on the TV or the mainstream papers. No one seems to worry about it and there seems to be a thought that such media are a safe space from the facts. Somewhat instructive of how gullibility is assumed and utilised.
No shale gas has been extracted for the Grid but massive amounts of carcinogenic gaseous byproduct have been released unburnt over the citizens of the Fylde!
Totally contrary to planning conditions as usual!
What on earth can we do when we live on the Carr Bridge Site. There are some 150 homes on Carr Bridge all paying rates and can not understand why this Fracking was ever allowed to happen. At the very first meeting at Pipers Heights it was opposed by Fylde, Lancashire and OVER RULED BY THE EXISTING GOVERNMENT !!!!!!!. Is this why my Astha has taken a turn for the worse. Very Unhappy Resident.
Peter – you cant help yourself can you? Could you provide any evidence to back up your ridiculous accusations?
But good to see INEOS just signed a contract that will produce, as a valuable by-product, hydrogen.
Shame it is for Antwerp, but that’s what you get when policies move to de-industrialise UK. Never mind, instead of importing oil to make petrol and diesel then UK can import the hydrogen! The winner? Sir Jim. The loser? The UK.
Hmmm, This great to see this Martin. As you quite rightly say Hydrogen!! That’ll keep the Anti’s quiet. But there’s no flies on good old Sir Jim!
I have lived in areas in the US near where they are fracking. I spent time with people in the hardest hit areas of West Virginia, where one of the sheep farmers lost almost all of the lambs in his 100-ewe flock to spontaneous abortion and birth problems in one year. He had been a successful sheep farmer for decades, on the land that had been in his family for generations. He himself had liver cancer. The only thing that had changed in his area was that the frackers had fracked all around his farm and poisoned his water. I am grateful to live now in NY state. I have seen this first-hand. You will feel different about this when your children are dying of cancer, as they are in southwestern Pennsylvania, a decade and a half on. There are safe ways to make energy. Fracking and the like are unnecessary. If you don’t fight this you are going to find it hard to live with yourselves when your land becomes uninhabitable.
Shiningbearheart: that is terrible really, it must have been tough to be in that situation. America used to be an untouched haven until us europeans landed in 1492 when columbus sailed the ocean blue, and cause it to become uninhabitable, all in less than 530 years!
The UK is one of the most regulated industries in the world for oil and gas exploration… the United States is a different regime entirely!
Eli – I’ve spent loads of time in the areas that shiningnearheart is writing about and I’ve never seen any evidence to back up his/her claims. Maybe he/she could provide some peer reviewed papers to back up those claims. But as you say – the UK isn’t the USA in terms of regulation
Thank Judith, but i wouldn’t be holding my breath on there being any evidence. Unless of-course shinybearheart can share… but you see evidence and credibility goes a long way, as does my lengthy experience in well integrity discipline in the o&g industry!
I hate to tell you folks this–since you are clearly looking for any excuse to be blind to the facts.
Two well-respected groups of health professionals and scientists reviewed the studies done to date on fracking. Here’s an excerpt from an article on their findings: A group of doctors and scientists have released a report showing that 84 percent of studies published from 2009-2015 on the health impacts of fracking conclude the industry causes harm to human health.
The report, published by two groups, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York, found that 69 percent of studies on water quality during the same time period found evidence of or potential for fracking-associated water contamination, and 87 percent of studies on air quality found “significant air pollutant emissions” associated with the industry.
The report looks at 1,778 articles from peer-reviewed medical or scientific journals, investigative reports by journalists, and reports from government agencies on fracking. Fracking is another name for hydraulic fracturing, which is a process of extracting natural oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure.
“When we first started issuing this report in 2014, we predicted we’d eventually see health impacts based on what we saw happening to air and water,” Sandra Steingraber, a professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Ithaca College and one of the lead authors of the study, told EHN. “Now we’re beginning to see actual evidence of human harm.”
Recent evidence in communities in southwestern Pennsylvania, which is one of the areas hardest hit by the shale gas industry, indicates that children in those communities are especially prone to cancers since the advent of fracking. The rate of cancers and other illnesses has skyrocketed in those and other communities where fracking has taken place.
I haven’t just “spent time in the areas” where this is happening. I have lived in Appalachia a for over 45 years, and have seen it impact communities throughout the region. If you see the region from a plane the first thing you realize is that they don’t frack where it can be readily seen– though that is changing. I often drive through Pennsylvania and West Virginia from Ithaca NY, where I relocated in 2013, to southern Ohio, where most of my close family live. You won’t see the processing facilities near the main highways, except in one spot on Route 50 in West Virginia. They tend to frack where they have been able to find farms back in the hills. Often they exploit situations where ther mineral rights were sold off in the coal mining days, in the 1800s. They purchase those rights for a song. The people who have farmed those farms for generations can’t do anything about it. sometimes they go on adjacent land and go sideways to frack under someone else’s property.
I have followed this closely since 2004, when it first came to my attention. One of the people in my community who alerted us to it was an older woman who was associated with Ohio University. Her family were oil people from Texas. When fracking came in there– one of the first places it was practiced– her people sold oil rights for thousands of acres to the frackers. They soon discovered that fracking is not the same as conventional oil drilling. They saw their farms ruined by the chemicals used in fracking. It is impossible to frack without benzene, tolulene and dozens of other carcinogenic substances– and after you have injected these poisons into the drilled wells you then have to dispose of it. Also there are radioactive minerals in the earth that are brought up with the fracking fluid. But don’t take my word for it– there is lots of evidence out there if you bother to find out.
I love England– have travelled there on a number of occasions, and have good friends there. I always was grateful the fact that Brits valued their green spaces and protected them. But it hasn’t always been so good. Do yourselves a favor–don’t go back to the bad old days. The 1800s were no picnic for those who suffered from industrialization. Don’t think that it couldn’t happen again, and this time it will be worse because climate chaos is here.
shiningbearheart – Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York are not a well respected group of scientists but instead are a group of political activists. The report that they have written is poorly written and although they emphasize the use of peer-reviewed journals most of the references are to soft literature that is not evidence-based. It is also very difficult to take you seriously when you write things that are clearly untrue such as “It is impossible to frack without benzene, tolulene and dozens of other carcinogenic substances”