We have visited Erin Landfill site to talk about the impact it has on local residents and schools.
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00:00 We are at Erin Landfill site today which has been causing issues for months now for local residents.
00:06 We can smell the odour and it's raining and it's windy today but we still can smell it quite intensively.
00:13 We spoke to local residents and they say this gets much worse, especially during the evenings.
00:20 And it has been causing impact as well for local schools, including small children, just 5-10 minutes walk away from here.
00:29 And it has been having impact on people's mental health every day.
00:33 There have been issues with this landfill site for many months now but for the last 5 months it has been worse.
00:43 Can you say a bit more about the difference you noticed?
00:46 Absolutely, longer than that actually. We've had a landfill/tip here in Poolsbrook, Dugmonton for going on 50 years.
00:55 And residents have lived alongside it quite comfortably. There have been pockets of complaints but more or less people have rubbed alongside it.
01:02 It used to be Island Pit in the old days so they used to have an installation here.
01:07 Now about 18 months ago the old company was taken over by a new operator called Valencia
01:15 and I do believe, in my opinion, that things have got much much worse since Valencia took control.
01:22 Certainly my casebook is full of complaints now from residents about the smell since the last 18 months but also escalating within the last 5 months.
01:36 And this must have quite a big impact on the residents' wellbeing.
01:41 Absolutely. I've had people call me in tears about the smell. They're worried about what it is.
01:48 They don't know what it is. They feel that nobody's listening to them.
01:52 There's a local primary school, two local primary schools in the vicinity and they're worried about the children's health.
02:00 Children can't play outside. People having parties for the children, for example, outside have had to cancel because the smell is so bad.
02:09 And you've had some complaints from the headteacher as well?
02:12 Oh, the headteacher's been quite involved in the issues, both the current one and the previous one.
02:18 They've had problems with having to keep the windows closed at the school because it's so bad.
02:25 It's affecting the kitchens at the school and they've even had to, on occasion, stop the children from playing outside because it's been so bad.
02:33 And yeah, kids are worried as well. It's obviously having an effect on the little children.
02:38 We don't know exactly what this is and so we don't know the effect it's having on their little lungs.
02:44 And you've been in touch with other councillors from other parts of the country who have similar issues with the same company?
02:49 Absolutely. I've been contacted by residents and councillors in Greater Manchester, in Canterbury and places in Scotland as well.
03:01 All practically identical issues to what we're having here in Bulls Brook and Dugmonton.
03:08 We need them to start taking residents' complaints seriously.
03:12 So you live near the landfill site and you can smell the odour every day?
03:18 Yes, I certainly can. I moved in in May 2022 and I've not had any real issues up until probably September, October last year.
03:27 And the gas emissions, sulphide gas emissions have got significantly worse since then.
03:33 And they're just getting worse. So since this story was released last week, there's smelt gas at night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night.
03:43 Sunday we had a day of temporary relief, there was no gas emissions.
03:48 But Monday night and last night as well, and you can probably get a little bit of it today.
03:53 We are stood at the boundary, so you'd expect that, but not in homes a quarter of a mile away.
03:59 And would you say, is there any time of the day or night when it's the worst?
04:03 It always seems to start after five o'clock when they've packed up work.
04:07 So for me, they're doing something differently in the day than they are doing at night.
04:11 They're probably protecting their workers who have to work on this site.
04:14 As you can see, they're currently capping at the moment behind me.
04:17 And there are work exposure limits set by the Health and Safety Executive, which they're in breach of.
04:22 Then the HSE could shut this site down.
04:25 So they're protecting their own workers in the daytime, but in the evening...
04:29 And you mentioned that it's quite bad in the mornings as well.
04:32 You mentioned you had issues with actually taking your dogs for the walk.
04:35 Generally, it's in the evening and generally it's dissipated by the morning.
04:39 But there are certain times, and it depends on the environmental conditions, so the temperature.
04:44 If it's a very cold night, the warmer air rises and tends to trap the lower air colder on ground level.
04:50 Because it's hydrogen sulfide, it's heavier than air, so it will always sit at the lower level, so it gets trapped.
04:55 So that's when it doesn't get dissipated.
04:57 And that's the issue we had at the school the other morning, whereby it hadn't been dissipated.
05:04 And you said that you've been working in the oil industry for quite a long time.
05:09 I've worked in the oil industry since 1979.
05:13 I'm a health and safety manager now, so I know quite a bit about hydrogen sulfide gas and its impact on working conditions.
05:19 It's a killer in high concentrations in the oil industry.
05:23 It's a known problem on landfill sites, which is why they're supposed to have a gas recovery system that clearly is not working.
05:30 So what do you think could potentially be going wrong here? Why is it smelling so bad?
05:35 For me, as part of getting a working permit for a landfill site, they have to stipulate a gas recovery system estimated on the gas that they think will be created.
05:47 And you also mentioned that you asked the Environment Agency about some data.
05:52 Yeah, around the perimeter of the site, they've got gas emission sensor stations, so they're supposed to monitor the gas releases around the full boundary perimeter.
06:01 They're probably every 100 yards up the path up here.
06:04 We've asked for emissions on the boundary that goes on to Poolsbrook.
06:08 I've asked for their gas energy plan, which is part of their permit, and I've also asked for information about their odor management plan, which again is part of the permit to operate.
06:19 We've had nothing back yet.
06:21 A spokesperson for Valencia said that the company has recently undertaken engineering work on the site to install capping and contour the landfill in accordance with its planning permission.
06:32 The spokesperson added that the installation of capping on landfill sites helps to reduce other emissions by covering wastes with an engineered barrier.