Technical and Strategic Assessment of Aggregate Supply Options in ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Technical & Strategic Assessment of Aggregate Supply Options in the South West Region4. Review of Available Data4.1 The background data, which forms the basis for the analysis presented in the laterChapters of this report, is set out below under the following five headings, corresponding tothe five principal themes of the research:o Primary Aggregateso Sub-Regional Apportionmento Potential for Substitutiono Recycled Materialso Wharf Capacities and Marine Aggregates4.2 Under each heading, consideration is given, not only to the factual assessment of existingconditions, but also to the economic and practical potential for change, insofar as thisstrategic overview has been able to ascertain. Unless deliberate market distortions areintroduced through financial instruments such as further taxes and/or transport subsidies, itis these limitations that will determine what, realistically, can be changed, within the periodto 2016 and beyond.Primary Aggregates4.3 Table A1 in Appendix A sets out a comprehensive listing of active and inactive primary andsecondary aggregate sources with planning consent within the South West, grouped bysimilarity of aggregate type, end use and geographical location.4.4 The land-based sources include a small number of dormant permissions which have not yethad an Initial Review of planning conditions and which cannot be worked until such areview has been carried out. For the most part, these are sites that are judged, by therelevant MPAs, to have at least some likelihood of being worked in future years, and theygenerally exclude sites where extant permissions are likely to be surrendered or which arelikely to become subject to prohibition orders.4.5 Figures (as supplied by the SWRAWP) are provided in Appendix A for the total permittedaggregate reserves (as of 31/12/01) and for the total annual output of aggregate (in 2001)for each group of primary aggregate sources. These figures provide a more detailedbreakdown than those given in the SWRAWP Annual Report for 2001 and they alsoincorporate some minor corrections to the 2001 data since that report was published (PhilHale, Secretary, SWRAWP, personal communication, February 2005). The figures for landbased primary aggregate sources are summarised in Table 4.1, below.4.6 Whilst the reserves figures should, theoretically, all have been calculated by the operatorsto take account of planning restrictions (e.g. land required for screening bunds), bestpractice in environmental protection and HSE guidelines on safe quarry design, in practicethis has probably not always been the case. Some of the figures will therefore be overestimatesof the volume of material that can actually be extracted from within the permittedsurface area.4.7 In all cases, the reserves and output figures relate only to material that is (or is likely to be)sold as aggregate (as judged by the MPAs concerned). This includes quarry fines,scalpings and (in some cases) armourstone, but it excludes all forms of dimension stone,including building stone, walling stone, roofing stone and ornamental stone products.4.8 Environment Agency decisions on the forthcoming new transfer licences for quarrydewatering may reduce the proportion of total reserves that are capable of being workedCapita Symonds Limited page 7 June 2005
Technical & Strategic Assessment of Aggregate Supply Options in the South West Regionand, in the case of quarries that are actively working below the water table, they couldpotentially restrict current and future rates of production. These effects should be minimalfor most quarries (not least because of the entitlement to compensation for any asset valuelost before 2012) but the impact could potentially be very serious in areas (such as theMendips) where major aggregate quarries requiring large scale dewatering exist withingroundwater catchments that are extensively used for public water supply. The preciseimplications of this cannot be assessed until more is known about the way in which the newlicences will be determined, although a number of scenarios could usefully be developed toillustrate some of the potential consequences. This, however, would require site-specificinformation on the proportions of reserves above and below the natural water table, andabove and below the current (drawn-down) water table. Such information is not currentlyavailable.Table 4.1: Permitted Reserves and Annual Output (in 2001) for Groups of Land-Based Primary Aggregate Sources in South West EnglandGroups of Sources 2001 Reserves 2001 Output2001Output LifeSub-Totals(see Appendix A for details of each group, and Figures 4.1 to 4.3 for locations) (Mt) (Mt) (Mt) (yrs)HARD ROCK AGGREGATE SOURCES: 0 0 0 0A: Carboniferous Limestone, Mendips, Somerset 638.75 13.03 49B: Carboniferous & Devonian Limestone, Somerset & Devon 124.96 2.18 57C: Carboniferous Limestone, North Somerset 61.00 2.45 25D: Carboniferous Limestone, Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean) 16.90 1.43 12E: Carboniferous Limestone, South Gloucestershire 183.00 3.02 6125.41F: Granite & Gabbro, SW Cornwall 124.03 0.93 133G: Granite, N Cornwall & Dartmoor 50.74 0.48 105H: Dolerite, Devon & Cornwall, plus Andesite, Somerset 87.79 1.24 71I: Carboniferous and Devonian Sandstone, Devon & Cornwall 21.20 0.59 36J: Carboniferous & Devonian Sandstone, Somerset and South Gloucestershire 3.60 0.0661‘WEAK’ ROCK AGGREGATE SOURCES: 0 0 0 0K: Jurassic Portland Limestone, Dorset 46.32 0.39 119L: Jurassic Limestone & Cretaceous Chalk, excluding Groups K and M 2.10 0.07 1.2032M: Jurassic Limestone, Gloucestershire 14.37 0.7419LAND-BASED SAND & GRAVEL AGGREGATE SOURCES: 0 0 0 0N: Permian & Triassic Sand & Gravel, Devon 12.05 1.02 12O: Cretaceous to Quaternary Sand & Gravel, Devon & Cornwall 3.05 0.19 16P: Cretaceous to Quaternary Sand & Gravel, Wiltshire 11.66 1.39 5.258Q: Quaternary and Triassic Sand & Gravel, Gloucestershire 11.77 0.88 13R: Tertiary & Quaternary Sand & Gravel, Dorset 26.89 1.77Totals (Mt) 1440.17 31.86 4515SOURCE: SWRAWP, February 20054.9 The increased breakdown shown in Table 4.1, compared with that given in the SWRAWPannual report, 2001, allows a more detailed examination to be made of the relativecontributions of supply from different types of aggregate. This is important because thedifferent types are not always interchangeable in terms of their suitability for different enduses. It is especially important in terms of the distinction between ‘hard rock’ aggregates(such as Carboniferous Limestone, Granite and Dolerite) and the much weaker materialsgenerally produced from younger rock types such as the Carboniferous sandstones withinthe Forest of Dean, the Jurassic Limestones, and the Cretaceous Chalk and Greensand.The latter are referred to here as ‘weak rock’ aggregates and are generally produced as aby-product of building stone extraction. Included in the latter group are a small number ofDevonian slate quarries where, in contrast to other building stone quarries, the ‘waste’ by-Capita Symonds Limited page 8 June 2005
Page 1 and 2: Technical and StrategicAssessment o
Page 3 and 4: Technical & Strategic Assessment of
Page 58 and 59:
Technical & Strategic Assessment of
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82:
show all

Technical and Strategic Assessment of Aggregate Supply Options in ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?