Rock salt mine's fight against nearby gas storage project nears the 11th hour

Winsford mine, which also houses National Archive treasures, fears a 'disastrous' leak if underground bunker gets green lightBritain's biggest and oldest salt mine, where lorries queue up for grit whenever snow and ice are forecast for Britain, is fighting a last-ditch battle against plans to store pressurised gas in caves less than a mile away.The owners of the 160-mile warren of tunnels at Winsford rock salt mine in Cheshire – which house priceless items from the National Archives as well as turning out grit – have failed in their legal efforts to acquire detailed geological information relating to an underground gas bunker at nearby Stublach.The bunker is being proposed by the French energy firm GDF Suez. Staff at the salt mine fear that any gas leak from the facility would be disastrous.GDF Suez's Storengy storage division has a good safety record, but the US-owned Salt Union company at Winsford says that gas storage does not sit easily alongside such a large and busy mine, where employees work 24 hours a day throughout the year."The scale of what could happen if there was any leak could be disastrous," said Harold James, managing director of Compass Minerals UK, Salt Union's parent firm, during a three-hour tour of the labyrinth where more than 1.4m tonnes of rock salt is extracted by machines a year. "We have 50 people here, known to all of us, underground round the clock, seven days a week. No business interest should supersede their safety."The mine is an intensel...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Geology Commodities Features Politics UK news Planning policy Energy industry Mining Freedom of information Business Science Gas Source Type: news