Thames Water Plan Huge Steel Tower for Mogden Site

Claim new chimney stack will improve local air quality

Thames Water have submitted a planning application for a new 26 metre high chimney stack at the Mogden sewage works. The steel tower, which would be the height of an eight to nine story building is necessary to meet Environment Agency standards for air quality, they say.

It will be located within the site and will be up to 26m high, forming part of a package of works to replace and upgrade plant and machinery that creates electricity and heat from the sewage treatment works’ process.

Existing flues at Mogden site to be replaced

This structure is a component of the proposed upgrade of the existing combined heat and power (CHP) plant at Mogden. The proposed flue stack will discharge the emissions of the new CHP engines that will replace the existing ones in the Power House.

The new engines will result in a substantial reduction in the mass emission rate of oxides of nitrogen from the combustion of biogas produced at the plant according to Thames Water. The existing individual engine exhaust stacks discharge just above the Power House roofline. In order to further improve the local air quality, it has been concluded (on the basis of air dispersion modelling) that a single multi-flue stack should be erected for the new engines, discharging at a height of up to 26m above ground level.

Details of chimney stack from Thames Water's design statement

Thames Water say that the new blowers will also be much quieter than the existing blowers resulting in a net decrease in noise generated from the site.

A supporting Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) commissioned by Thames Water states that the effects of the proposed flue stack on the landscape is considered to be moderate/slight adverse which will be reduced further over time due to vegetation growth around the site. Users of the public right of way alongside the Duke of Northumberland River and homes close by such as Beaumont Place will have their views affected by the tower.

Thames Water’s design statement claims that the environmental benefits of the tower will outweigh any negative impact on the visual landscape.

The work to install the stack and associated plant is due to start in 2016 and is likely to take 18 months to complete.

October 9, 2015