Walleys Quarry: complaints to Environment Agency increasing again
Latest figures show there has been a rise in reports about the landfill site.
Last updated 15th Apr 2024
Complaints have started to increase at Walleys Quarry according to the latest figures released.
For the first time since the end of June, complaints to the Environment Agency about the landfill site in Silverdale have passed over 100 in a one week period.
Complaints to the EA have increased every week in October, having reached 115 compared for the week ending 29 October. This is a big increase from the start of the month with only 26 complaints.
In the same period, complaints to the council have stayed steady only reaching a peak of 29 in the week ending 15 October and finishing the month with 26 complaints. The latest EA data on hydrogen sulphide shows that across the monitoring stations levels were above the world health organisation annoyance threshold 9 per cent of the time.
Council officers have been out collecting snapshot data. In October alone, officers took 54 snapshot readings at seven locations and reported that odour related to the landfill was detected on 13 out of 54 odour assessments.
The highest reading of hydrogen sulphide detected was 4.18ppb at Cemetery Road, with the remaining figures below 4ppb. However the devices used to detect hydrogen sulphide can only detect readings between 3ppb and 10,000ppb so it is possible that the devices did not capture odour in some locations.
Council Leader, Simon Tagg (Con) told cabinet members: “I think we need to watch it over the next weeks and months as we go through the winter for any further deterioration.
"I’m really encouraged that we are still out there doing our own monitoring of this through the hand held equipment that we have, responding to residents complaints which is always what we said we would so and it’s interesting the results from those are showing that is below that risk level and of course as we know a certain level has to be reached for the abatement notice to be triggered.”
In a statement released in October, a spokesperson from Walleys Quarry Ltd said: “The work WQL has been undertaking has seen significant reductions in reporting complaints attributed to the site and its operations.”