The process to clean up and reclaim the Polkemmet site is a complex, lengthy and expensive one. The very large volumes of spoil could not be removed practically or in a financially viable manner by a straightforward civil engineering operation and previous attempts to solve the problems of the burning bings have 
proved less than successful. Due to the scale and nature of the development, detailed Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) were created and submitted to West Lothian Council for approval and extensive research was done to identify the environmental effects of the reclamation and mining process, and to work out the best way to avoid, minimise or offset any negative effects (often referred to as "mitigation".
In order to mine the coal, if it was as easy as turning up with a handful of lorries and diggers and plough away, then it would have been done so by now. Before any project like the Polkemmet reclamation scheme and Heartlands scheme even started, before the first lorry passed the gate, many important factors had to be considered. Would the project affect the local community? What would be the health implications for the residents of Whitburn and other towns ? Polkemmet Road is virtually next door to the site to the east and schools such as Polkemmet Primary and St Joseph's Primary lie not too far away to the north east. Would the environment be damaged ? Would the two main streams meandering through the site be affected ? and what about the land itself, how would that end up? These questions and many more have been, and continue, to be looked at and where possible answered to the benefit of all. The Polkemmet reclamation scheme is, and will be monitored during its lifetime and every possible effort is being taken by Ecosse Regeneration Ltd, Minrec (the contractors), West Lothian Council and other parties to ensure that the communities, the environment, the eco-system etc are not adversely affected or permanently damaged by what is one of the countries largest urban regeneration projects.
While making sure the environment is looked after, recycling is also a fundamental part of the Polkemmet reclamation scheme / Heartlands operation.
- Trees have been uplifted and replanted in a carefully monitored nursery for re-use around the new landscape.
- Boulders which have been excavated from around the site will be used as features around the golf courses, business park, SUDs ponds and housing landscape etc.
- The road layouts for the housing and business park etc will follow wherever possible existing tree lines so that the trees themselves become landscape features.
- Peat from around the south of the site is being re-used as part of the golf course construction. This will aid drainage in a natural and sustainable manner.
- The colliery waste (bing) material will be crushed and recycled for use as a topsoil medium mainly within the golf course areas.
Recycling of the colliery waste.
in order to establish a suitable base for vegetation to grow on what is basically 120 Ha of derelict land, topsoil would normally be brought in at great expense and laid on the surface. However, Ecosse Regeneration Ltd, innovators as they are, plan to create a suitable topsoil from a blend of screened and processed colliery waste and locally produced compost thus reducing the need to import topsoil and subsoil with associated environmental and economic costs as well as other benefits.
During 2006 a project was undertaken by Ecosse and the Waste & Actions Resources Programme (WRAP) to asses the benefits of the application of composted material mixed with residual colliery waste as an industrial site restoration medium at the Polkemmet-Heartlands site. The first report submitted by WRAP is available here as a Adobe Acrobat (PDF) download. Click on the Acrobat icon below to load the document into your browser or right click your mouse button and use "Save Link As" to download the PDF onto your computer.
The web site, in particular, the environment and sub sections will attempt to explain, without getting too technical, the affects of dust, blasting, noise etc and what measures are in place to mitigate these effects.
While some content for this web site has been derived from the EIS's, they were, themselves, very technical documents. This web site has been created for the general public and not professionals such as engineers, surveyors and the like (although hopefully they will find this site useful) and such the content will reflect this. If technical terms have to be used, they will be explained. If technical maps and diagrams are used these will be re-drawn to show what is necessary for this site.
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