Seal Sands () is a 294.37 hectare

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, notified in 1966. Situated in the mouth of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

next to Greatham Creek and Seaton-on-Tees Channel, the site is accessible from the A178 road running between Seaton Carew and Port Clarence. SSSIs are designated by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

, formerly

English Nature English Nature was the Executive agency, United Kingdom government agency that promoted the Conservation (ethic), conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006. It was a non-departmental public body ...

, which uses the 1974–1996 county system. This means there is no grouping of SSSIs by

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

unitary authority, or

which is the relevant

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

. As such Seal Sands is one of 18 SSSIs in the Cleveland area of search. An area of reclaimed land is given over to chemical industries.

Chemical industries site

On land recovered from the sea, an area of Seal Sands is used as an industrial park for the chemical industry. Members of the

Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster developed in accordance with Michael Porter's theories and strategies regarding industrial clusters. The chemistry-using sectors in North East England, where mor ...

(NEPIC) using the site include:

Ineos Ineos Group Limited is a British multinational conglomerate headquartered and registered in London. it was the fourth largest chemical company in the world, with additional operations in fuel, packaging and food, construction, automotive, ph ...

, Fine Organics,

Central Area Transmission System The Central Area Transmission System (known as CATS) is a natural gas transportation and processing system that transports natural gas through a 404 kilometre pipeline from the Central North Sea to a reception and processing terminal at Teessi ...

( BP Group),

SABIC Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (), known as SABIC (), is a Saudi chemical manufacturing company. 70% of SABIC's shares are owned by Saudi Aramco. It is active in petrochemicals, chemicals, industrial polymers and fertilizers. It is the second ...

, Vertellus,

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

Vopak Royal Vopak N.V. () is a Dutch independent multinational corporation, multinational company that stores and handles products ranging from chemicals, petroleum, oil, gases and LNG to biofuels and vegoils. Its purpose is to "Store vital products w ...

, Simon Storage, Intertek Caleb Brett, Harvest Operations. Both Greenergy and Air Products abandoned their plans to each operate a plasma gasification waste-to-energy facility at Seal Sands.

References

Sources

English Nature citation sheet for the site
(accessed 5 August 2006).

External links

English Nature (SSSI information)

Site boundary map at English Nature's "Nature on the Map" website
River Tees Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1966 {{Hartlepool-geo-stub

Chemical industries site

See also

References

Sources

External links