2007-02:Fight the Pipe (England)

Fight the Pipe

About The Pipe

Several years ago the government was put into a worrying position over the gas situation in the UK, it was realised that Britain now has a shortage of gas and that gas supply would have to come from external sources. With this panic in mind they basically told gas companies to do what ever they could to do ensure a good supply of gas.

National Grid have made plans to create a 197 mile pipeline to supply 20% of the supply of gas in Britain. The pipe will transport Liquid Natural Gas (LNG, gas that has been cooled to liquid form at -161oC) from Milford Haven in Pembroke, South Wales, to Tirley in Gloucestershire. Gas will be transfered through the pipes at the 94barr pressure, which has never been tried before.

The route will go through Pembroke, Camarthen, the Swansea Valleys, Brecon Beacons National Park, Hay on Wye, Ross on Wye and Gloucester.

Reasons For Concern

There are many reasons to be concerned about this pipeline. National Grid are taking many risks in attempt to monopolise the European Gas Industry, the pipeline is not a necessary development and will not benefit the residents of the UK, yet it is causing a great deal of upset to thousands of people. Why should you be concerned?

• Safety

There are major safety concerns regarding this pipeline, National Grid have admitted having no experience of dealing with such a big pipeline. The pipeline measuring at 48inches wide and 115miles long will pump odourless gas through at 94 bar. Gas pumped through at this speed is designed to travel in straight lines. This pipeline arches, curves and changes in height, therefore pressure points will be created, weakening the structure of the pipe.

National Grid have breached their own policies for this pipeline by placing sections of the pipeline above land:“Installing underground pipelines provides the safest, most secure and practical method of transporting gas. Above ground pipelines are not favoured due to their visual impact, their need for frequent maintenance and the fact that they sterilise the land preventing its use for agriculture and other purposes. All of National Grid’s natural gas transmission pipelines are underground.” (Honeybourne to Wormington Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline, Non-Technical Summary, December 2006)

National Grid’s lack safety policies have already endangered the lives and homes of Trebanos residents, whereby they intended to use explosive in order to move rock. This area of South Wales is situated along a faultline and is prone to landslides, the results could have been horrific if it wasn’t for Trebanos locals quick thinking and reporting the case to the Department of Trade and Transport, who instantly stopped the work. The area of Trebanos was deemed to unstable to house normal gas lines to the resident’s homes, it is now to accommodate a 48inch pipeline. Safety checks will be too expensive, therefore it’s likely they will check several sections of the pipe and take an average estimate of the whole pipeline. This will create the perfect safety statistics but in reality the pipelines safety and integrity will be decreasing and having the inevitable detrimental effect on the surrounding area and its inhabitants. Within 30 years a hole is guaranteed to have formed within the pipeline (Health and Safety Executive) and is unlikely that National Grid will have the adequate safety checks in place to detect and deal with it in a timely fashion.

• Environmental

The Pipeline runs through Brecon Beacon National Park, this will cause many adverse effects on the environment, the National Park have put together a 70 page impact report. The pipeline will also run through Sites of Scientific Special Interest and ancient woodlands. Areas of the effected land will be unsuitable for agriculture and trees cannot safely be planted within 10 metres of the pipeline route. The construction of the placing a pipe underground involves the land being ripped away, cutting down of trees and scaring away the natural inhabitants, it will take at least 20 years for the land to be restored into its original condition. And of course if the pipeline blows up - that’s goodbye to South Wales.

Nearby the Brecon Protest site there has been spottings of protected species, badgers, owls and bats. National Grid will recklessly destroy their homes, they have been informed and they seem to care very little about it.

National Grid are overlooking the impacts that this development will have on the climate change issues that are currently of such great concern.

• Political

The intention of this pipeline is to monopolise the European Gas Industry not to serve our country with a safe, sustainable and reliable fuel. National Grid have misinformed landowners leading them to believe that the pipeline will not cause much damage or disruption to their land. They have bullied people into selling their land through compulsory purchase orders. They have the given the public very little information regarding the pipeline and the first that most people know about it is when the machinery turn up outside their garden. They have bypassed environmental impact assessments and taken short cuts with safety. They have overruled national parks and Sites of Scientific Interest. They have illegal closed footpaths and behaved aggressively to those who object.

It is a major worry that the public trusts this company, when the company is behaving with such deceit.