As the site was one of the largest petrochemical plants in Europe, there is an industrial legacy at Baglan Bay which St. Modwen, as the site owner and developer, is fully committed to managing through a long-term and phased remediation programme.
Before handing over the site to St. Modwen last year, BP carried out a three-year programme of remediation works from 2006 to 2009.
St. Modwen has now launched a clean-up process at the site, remediating areas of land contaminated by the former BP plant’s manufacturing and petrochemical processes, to clean up the land and redevelop Baglan Bay into a sustainable employment site.
St. Modwen has appointed local contractor Cuddy, supported by environmental consultant, ERM and remediation specialist, QDS to carry out the first phase of remediation works at the site. Atkins, the UK’s largest engineering consultancy, will also provide independent supervision across the project.
The remediation work will involve these experts using tried and tested techniques employed across hundreds of other large-scale remediation projects in the UK, to ensure the land is re-developed in a safe, sustainable and environmentally-friendly way.
The process of cleaning-up the site will be carried out gradually across a series of areas which are intensively controlled and monitored. The first areas to be remediated by St. Modwen are the former styrene (the raw materials used for polystyrene) manufacturing areas situated to the North East part of the site.