Last week, I attended the WasteWise community liaison meeting and here are the key updates:
They have now completed all the improvements requested by the Environment Agency. These were recommend by the Best Available Techniques. This includes adding covers to bays, filtration system amongst other things.
What happens next is monitoring. The first of two detailed monitoring periods has just ended.
The monitoring is being undertaken by an accredited third party and has been designed by the national EA odour team to identify the processes and activities where odour is generated and to quantify it. The first results are expected later in the Autumn, and I await them with interest.
I shared my opinion that they will be invaluable for identifying the specific actions and process that generate increase odour. This information can then be used to update action plans to further reduce odour.
All the elected representatives communicated the need for clear and quick communication after events like the fire on the open heap in late August so we can inform all of you.
We were told that the Fire Service were on site quickly and the situation was always under their control. There was a ‘burn notice’ to begin with but advice changed.
Next steps are to look at what the monitoring data is telling us and I’ll follow up with EA to find out the timetable for that information. This information will be publicly available.
If you have any further questions about the meeting please email me and I’ll happily try to answer them and if I can’t I’ll find someone who can.