A “peaceful protest” against a government plan to construct a huge underground storage tank for sewage close to the Airport is being held in St Peter tonight.
Organised by a St Peter resident, the demonstration is due to take place at 5.30 pm at the parish hall to coincide with a “drop-in session” being organised by the Infrastructure and Environment Department to share details of the proposed “attenuation tank”, which already has planning permission.
A notice on social media inviting people to the protest says it will “peacefully demand answers and call for this project to be scrapped”.
It adds that at 6 pm, a group called “Human Rights Jersey” will present evidence to the various [project] teams “that shows the damage that cutting into an aquifer will cause”.
The drop-in session will take place upstairs in the parish hall between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm.
The attenuation tank – which generated strong complaints from parishioners but ultimately received planning permission in June – is part of an Island-wide programme which could, potentially, see up to nine of them dug at various sewerage network pinch-points around the Island.
Due to be dug in a field bordering the Airport, not far from the Coop service station, the tank is designed to store foul and surface run-off water at peak times, such as after heavy rainfall.
It will be 25m in diameter, 20m deep and be able to store 6,100 m3 of liquid. By comparison, the cavern under Snow Hill car park has a capacity of 25,000 m3.