Harwood Quarry

An unlined area of the site, which had been used for municipal wastes had to be engineered and covered with non-hazardous material to ensure the original waste materials had been safely covered.

A second permitted area was granted by the EA to house non-hazardous materials, however, this area had to be engineered with a geosynthetic clay liner ensuring that limited contaminants can leach through.

The site is now built using interconnected cells that incorporate clay basal liner and sidewall where required. A spine drainage system sits underneath the basal to manage groundwater that permeates through the mineral strata. Leachate chimneys have been installed within the cells to allow for leachate extraction and to monitor groundwater.

Waste on-site is placed in engineered layers, working from the base of the quarry upwards. Harwood Quarry is permitted to accept a wide range of materials including Inert, Non-Hazardous & Invasive soils with rhizomes (5% rhizome content). Materials are assessed in house to ascertain the level of contamination prior to being accepted.

An extraction programme has continued on-site in which shale is extracted and stockpiled using a standard bench system as outlined in the Quarry Regulations 1999. Sandstone material that sits between the shale mass is extracted to be crushed, screen, and sold out of the site.

Most of the work on-site is carried out by in-house engineers, technicians, and operators with an average of 400,000 tonnes of imported waste material and 100,000 tonnes of extracted shale per annum.

Harwood Quarry will continue to import & extract materials until the void space has been filled and the original quarry restored back to the natural landscape.