PME on closed landfill sites

Two closed landfill sites have a public supply with the cutout labelled as PME. Both are long closed sites so now a large field effectively with some pumps on control panels spread across the site. The PME supply goes back to its time as a working landfill or in one case more likely it’s previous existence as a quarry. It therefore seems likely that when providing the PME earth the DNO knew the nature of the site.  Landfill sites, closed or not, are not a special location. Can the use of a PME earth on such a site be criticised?

Both sites have a couple of shipping containers as site buildings.  However they could be considered to be controlled by an instructed person so PME for mobile or transportable buildings could be allowed (717.411.4). For the first of these conversion to TT for the cabins is not straightforward since the area with the cabins is close to the building with the supply, surrounded by lampposts on the pme supply and possibly other underground earthed metalwork which could make proper separation from the PME earth harder to achieve.  If left on PME how should bonding conductors be sized? Section 717 says nothing about bonding conductor size which would leave it being sized according to the supply PEN. One site has 300mm2 live conductors coming out of the cutout whilst the other has parallel 35s. Section 717 asks for the bonding of the mobile or transportable units structure to the local MET.  However if the idea is to carry diverted neutral currents it would presumably need to go back to the MET for the site?

I’d appreciate any advice on this.

Parents
  • Thanks for the replies.

    The bonding connections locally in the containers range between 6 and 16mm. The connection back to the MET relies in some case on cable armour, the smallest being 16mm 4 core. The smallest core relied on is 10mm.

    The pumps are atex borehole pumps for leechate, which is liquid which accumulates in the waste. The area around these leechate wells is atex zone 2. There are also transducers in the wells connected into the control panel via IS barriers. The control panels are kept more than 2.2 metres from the wells so that they are not in an atex zone. 

Reply
  • Thanks for the replies.

    The bonding connections locally in the containers range between 6 and 16mm. The connection back to the MET relies in some case on cable armour, the smallest being 16mm 4 core. The smallest core relied on is 10mm.

    The pumps are atex borehole pumps for leechate, which is liquid which accumulates in the waste. The area around these leechate wells is atex zone 2. There are also transducers in the wells connected into the control panel via IS barriers. The control panels are kept more than 2.2 metres from the wells so that they are not in an atex zone. 

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