To receive a presentation on issues relating to odours associated with Walleys Quarry.
Minutes:
The Leader introduced an update on issues associated with odours from Walleys Quarry. This had been one of the biggest issues that the Council had faced over the past two years.
Actions had been taken to try and hold the operator to account, including abatement notices and trying to force the Environment Agency (EA) to take a more rigorous approach.
The Council’s Chief Executive, Martin Hamilton gave a presentation outlining the work that the Council was doing to remedy the situation which had been going on for a number of years. In 2021 the Council received over 22,000 complaints and the EA received over 43,000.
The landfill gas, Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) could be easily traced and had defined characteristics around the levels at which it became offensive and problematic to health.
Four Air Quality Monitoring stations had been placed around the site which gave weekly reports of H2S levels. Two thresholds had been identified by the World Health Organisation - the Annoyance threshold and the Long Term Health Impact threshold.
The presentation included a graph which showed the number of complaints received and the levels of H2S at the four monitoring stations.
The EA had been enforcing the environmental permit for the site and had identified breaches. The site had been identified as level F which was the lowest grading that a landfill site could get.
The Council served an Abatement Notice in August, 2021 requiring abatement of the nuisance within five months. The Notice had a right of appeal, which Walleys Quarry Limited did in September, 2021. A court hearing had been scheduled for four weeks in October, 2022. The option of a mediated resolution remained open.
Temporary clay capping had been completed in Phase 2 and permanent capping was being carried out for Phase 1.
It was queried whether any health bodies were monitoring or recording the number of GP visits, prescriptions or treatment and potential causation to Walleys Quarry operations.
Syndromic monitoring was being carried out to assess any differences in reporting in the area, over time. In addition, changes to prescriptions had been monitored. Staffordshire County Council had got a health symptom tracker on their website. Also, work had been commissioned by health colleagues to work with Keele University to do a longer term study.
Clarification was sought regarding the long term health threshold and whether it was being exceeded as the length of time of the odours continued.
The HAS had been focussed on the long term health threshold and there was a lot of debate as to whether or not the threshold was being met at the particular sites. This was difficult as the health threshold was measured over a long period of time – 2mg over the period of a year.
It was asked if the odour had impacted upon workers at Garners Garden Centre.
Businesses had been engaged with to discuss what the issues were and what the impacts had been.
Assurance was sought that pressure would continue to be put on the EA to resolve the issues.
The Council was working with them through the multi-agency effort co-ordinated by a strategic co-ordination group. The Council had engaged with the EA to try and make progress.
Reports had been made regarding an Enforcement Notice being withdrawn despite a deadline not being met. It was asked whether this was true.
The Enforcement Notice had been issued by the EA and had been withdrawn due to sufficient information being received from the operator.
Regarding the lorries stacking up on Cemetery Road. There had been talk about them being admitted to the site, had there been any progress with that?
The Council was organising dialogue between the County Council, Police, EA and this Council to find a solution.
It was asked whether links could be added to committee report which opened up sites such as the County Council’s symptom tracker.
A link was included on the Council’s website to the symptom tracker.
All of the monitoring was based on Hydrogen Sulphide. Other gases were included within landfill gas and it was asked if the Council had details of the thresholds for those other gases.
Other components of landfill gas were routinely monitored and there had been nothing to suggest problems with any other gases.
In summary, the Leader thanked the Chief Executive for the presentation. There was still a lot to be done and pressure needed to be kept up on the EA to hold the operator to account.
Resolved: That the update be received.