Despite the move towards more sustainable means of managing waste than landfill, there will be a continuing need to restore former quarry sites and dispose of non-recyclable materials, whether this be soils arising from developments or residuals from other recycling methods. The emphasis is now on operators themselves to demonstrate compliance rather than on the regulators to identify non-compliance. At Hafren we see this as an opportunity for operators to take a more active role and to regulate their own sites.
We provide highly targeted, practical support to clients at all stages of landfill development. The increasing powers of the Environment Agency, SEPA and Natural Resources Wales, means that now more than ever good, pragmatic technical advice is needed by site owners and operators.
Our involvement in the landfill industry can be broken down into five broad categories; planning, permitting, compliance, surrender and maintenance.
Rixton Landfill is a non-hazardous landfill that required re-permitting under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations. Two previous assessments (by others) failed to fully define the geological and hydrogeological setting well enough to give the Environment Agency confidence to issue a Permit for the existing landfill.
Hafren routinely undertakes the necessary hydrological and hydrogeological assessments needed to support Planning Applications for restoration of a site via landfilling. We also advise on the more detailed input required at the Permitting stage. The latter commonly involves the design and implementation of monitoring programmes, including the installation of monitoring boreholes, identification of sensitive receptors and potential impacts via qualitative or quantitative methods. Liaison and negotiation with the regulators is undertaken by ourselves at many stages of the landfill cycle.
On-going support to operators is offered in the form of annual monitoring reviews, advice on permit variations, through to eventual surrender. Advice is also offered on the use of Permits for recovery of waste materials and the re-restoration of historical, poorly restored landfills. Our clients include, amongst others, Tarmac, Colliers Industrial Waste Ltd, Crapper & Sons, Bullimore Sand and Gravel, Smiths Construction, Middleton Aggregates, Grundon Waste Ltd.