The decision by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to prevent National Grid's Main Works Contractor, Nacap Land & Marine,from blasting its way through rock so as to lay the new gas pipeline at Trebanos is commonsense, the local Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black, has said.
Nacap asked for permission to carry out this blasting after they discovered that the rock near the Swansea Valley village of Trebanos was harder than envisaged. They asked the Secretary of State for permission to create a shaft of 7.5 metres diameter and 30 metres depth. They estimated that each blast would consist of 100 holes each containing 0.2kg of explosive, each detonated separately as consecutive split second detonations. The overall package would have consisted of 40 such blasts.
In making the decision, the Secretary of State took account of the fact that local residents were living within 44 metres from the proposed shaft and that Nacap could not guarantee that 100% of these blasts would keep within the required ground vibration levels. He ruled instead that Nacap should use the alternative method of 'pecking' to dig the shaft.
"This is a victory for commonsense," said Mr. Black. "I wrote to the Secretary of State to ask him to prevent blasting because I shared residents' concerns that such activity would have destabilised the geography of the whole area and posed a substantial threat to local residents. I am pleased that the Secretary of State listened to the many representations he received and acted accordingly."
"Welcome as this decision is, it does not of course allay the other fears of local residents about the safety of the pipeline itself. I share their worries about the dangers of so much gas so close to their homes and would suggest that the National Grid need to do a lot more to put people's minds at ease on this issue."
