Concern over sludge removal plan

The aim is to keep navigation channels clear

Concerns have been raised over plans to remove contaminated material from the River Tyne and dispose of it at sea.

The Port of Tyne Authority is to remove 60,000 cubic metres of sludge, contaminated by years of shipbuilding in the region.

It will be taken to the sea off Souter Point and covered with a cap of silt and sand to clear the river channel.

But concerns have been raised by the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee and anti-sewage campaigners.

North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee, chief fisheries officer David McCandless, said: "The marine environment is a very, very strange beast and with a lot of factors, tidal factors, storm factors etc and the main concern would be the integrity of the cap."

Anti-sewage campaigner Bob Latimer said: "We are told that it's been tried somewhere else in the world but never in conditions, I believe, like the North Sea."

Extensive consultation

In a statement, the Port of Tyne said it removes almost 50,000 tonnes of naturally occurring silt from the river every year.

It said: "A small proportion of the sediment requires more specialist handling and the Port has spent £550,000 over the past eight years to research and evaluate every possible option available.

"Following extensive consultation with the appropriate regulatory bodies the method of confined disposal has been approved as the best practicable environmental solution because it is a tried and tested technique, frequently used worldwide."

It said the trial will be carefully monitored by Defra.

A Defra spokesman said: "The licence to the Port of Tyne is for a trial disposal at sea of some 60,000 cubic metres of dredged material containing contaminants above the levels normally accepted for sea disposal.

"To ensure however that the contaminants are contained, the disposal will require approximately 135,000 cubic metres of clean silt and sand to be deposited on the top as a cap."

He said the licence was issued after close consultation with the Port, environmental advisers and bodies including the Environment Agency and English Nature.