Continued from Crymlyn Burrows Incinerator part 1
On 10th August 2003, there was a serious fire at the plant. This started in the filter associated with the composting facility. The compost production produces ammonia gas which is toxic and foul smelling. In order to remove this gas the air is passed over a filter of pine root wood chips. The ammonia is very easily dissolved in water and then becomes converted into nitrates by fungi and bacteria which grow in the filter. The filter is a mass of wood chips some 52 metres long 15 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. A report into the cause of the fire was unable to determine a cause but did establish that it was possible that it was started by spontaneous combustion of the wood chips caused by a combination of heat generated by the biological organisms decomposing the wood fuelled by the nitrates, and chemical processes due to oxygen from the air and the nitrates reacting with the resins and other materials in the wood. It would also appear that the the alarm systems were deficient and those that were present may have been switched off due to continuous false alarms. This fire led to a considerable delay in the commissioning of the plant.
The company running the plant HLC (Neath Port Talbot) Ltd, went into administration in 2005 and the operation was taken over by the council themselves. In August 2006 a case took place in the High Court between the council and the Bank of Scotland over the £40 million debt that the company had left. The BBC reported the following. The council's barrister Stephen Davies QC told the judge the "under-performing" waste site "has been a disaster" both for Neath Port Talbot and neighbouring Bridgend Council. He said since the collapse of the firm that was running the centre meant the councils were having to pay around £52,000 a week more to dispose of their waste than had originally been planned for. He also said without a new partner and new investment the council faced a loss of £67.5m over a 25 year period. So much for Councillor Crowley's dismissal of our objections.
In July 2008 the council launched a £54m lawsuit over the plant It issued a High Court writ against two companies which offered technical advice over the project. The defendants in the action are Currie & Brown Project Management and Currie & Brown Consulting, both of which are dormant companies.
Currie & Brown Project Management produced a technical due diligence report on the project for investors in 2000. Currie & Brown Consulting was appointed technical adviser to the investors in 2000 and the division was also appointed technical adviser to the council in 2002.
Will Watson, corporate director for the environment at Neath Port Talbot council, said: “The council is seeking damages following the failure of the materials recycling and energy centre to achieve anything like its contracted performance levels, particularly in terms of diverting waste from landfill, recycling and the production of compost.”