Environmental checks for building near burns and the shore

8 November 2026

Stonehaven grew up where two rivers, the Carron and the Cowie, come down to the bay, and anyone who has watched either of them after a night of heavy rain knows how quickly a quiet water can change. For commercial and industrial projects along this stretch of coast, water is usually the first environmental question to come up. It is rarely the only one.

Water from above and below

A new unit, a yard extension or a change of use on low ground near a watercourse will often need a flood risk assessment before the planning authority is satisfied. SEPA publishes flood maps and advises planning authorities across Scotland, and its view carries weight. A flood risk assessment examines the risk affecting the site and informs decisions about its proposed use. The findings can influence building levels, yard layout, surface water drainage and the position of stored materials. Those decisions matter where a working yard sits close to water.

What the ground remembers

Coastal towns and their hinterland have a long working past. Ground near a harbour may have held boatyards, fuel stores or coal yards, and older rural sites may have had a smithy, a sheep dip or a buried fuel tank. Nobody wants to find that out halfway through digging foundations. A desk study looks at old maps and records, and where it raises questions, site investigation and sampling follow. If contamination turns up, the remediation needed depends on what is there and what the site will be used for next.

Keeping a working site in order

For premises already trading, the questions change. A spill kit by the fuel point and staff who know how to use it. Interceptors maintained so that they still work in a storm. Trade effluent consent from Scottish Water where process water goes to the public sewer. Waste correctly classified before it leaves the gate. These routine matters decide whether an incident stays on the yard or reaches the sea.

Environmental Services sets out the kinds of environmental consultancy and site services that projects like these tend to need, from assessments and remediation to spill response and waste classification, across waste, water and land.

Weather and survey seasons

Sampling and surveys on this coast depend on the weather as much as anything. Groundwater levels change through the year, ecological surveys have their own seasons, and a drilling rig for site investigation needs firm access that a wet field in November will not give. It is worth checking access and survey requirements while the project is still being planned, rather than discovering a problem after the builders have been booked and the steel ordered.

The best environmental work on a site like this is usually the work nobody notices afterwards: the yard that drains properly in a storm, the fuel that stays in its bund, the old ground that was dealt with before anyone built on it.