Portrack Incinerator
| Portrack Incinerator | |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Location | County Durham, North East England |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Commission date | 1975 |
| Decommission date | 1996 |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Waste |
| grid reference NZ475198 | |
The Portrack Incinerator was a municipal waste incinerator and waste-to-energy power station situated on the River Tees at Portrack in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England.
Incinerator history
The incinerator was opened in 1975 to burn the domestic waste of the four local authorities of Middlesbrough, Stockton on Tees, Redcar & Cleveland and Hartlepool.[1] It was praised as an environmentally friendly answer to waste management on Teesside.[2] The plant burned approximately 200,000 tonnes of waste every year and had the potential capacity to generate 20 megawatts (MW) of electricity although it never actually did so.[1] Ash from the incinerator was sent to landfill and ferrous metal baled and sold on as scrap. During the 1980s, a former quarry at Whitton was used as a site to dump the incinerator's ash.[3]
In the early 1990s, Northumbrian Water and Internal Technology Europe Ltd. applied for planning permission to build a sludge incinerator alongside the waste incinerator. These plans were refused, despite an appeal in 1992.[4]
The incinerator was closed down in November 1996, after failing to meet new emission regulations. The plant was then demolished and its site cleared between 1998 and 2000.[1] The incinerator's 300-foot (91 m) tall chimney was demolished on 14 March 1999.[5] The budget for the demolition went into the red in early 2000.[6] The north part of the site was used as the Stockton civic amenity dump, until it closed in December 2001.[1]
The incinerator was superseded by the Teesside WTE Power Station a couple of miles down river at Haverton Hill.
| Portrack Meadows Wildlife Reserve | |
|---|---|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 411: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Location within England
|
|
| Location | Stockton-on-Tees, England |
| Operated by | Tees Valley Wildlife Trust |
| Website | teeswildlife.org |
Portrack Meadows Wildlife Reserve
After the Portrack Incinerator site was cleared it was transformed into a site for recreation and wildlife and named Portrack Meadows Wildlife Reserve.[1] The site is managed by Tees Valley Wildlife Trust who have placed several interpretation boards around the site for the visitor. At the site's blocked-off northern road entrance is a public sculpture entitled Germination (2005) commissioned by Tees Valley Wildlife.[7][8]
Flora
Many trees were planted around the incinerator to screen it off, but when the site was cleared to give other plants a chance to grow, many of these trees were pollarded. After clearing the incinerator site it was planted with hedgerows, oak trees and sown with wildflower seeds.[8][9] However the concrete base of the incinerator still remains under the site—a fact that may account for the extremely dense vegetation.
-
Portrack Meadows with the A19 Tees Viaduct in the distance
-
Germination sculpture at the entrance at the north end of the Portrack Meadows site
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Script error: The function "top" does not exist.
 |
|
|||
| Portrack, Portrack Marsh Nature Reserve |
 |
Tees Newport Bridge, Middlesbrough |
||
|
||||
 |
||||
| Maze Park Nature Reserve | Tees Viaduct | River Tees |
Script error: The function "bottom" does not exist.
