Transcript of Facebook Q&A event 28/09/2022 

PRES: Presenter 

ML: Marc Lidderth 

MJ: Mike Jenkins

PRES: Ok, Marc, thank you. Lots in there for you Louise I hope that was helpful. Let’s go to Richard and to Mark now who both have very similar questions, so we have grouped them together. Richard writes to say: now that cell one is fully capped off and sealed once the drought ends and the smell becomes widespread again will you admit that the new waste is causing a problem? And Mark also writes on the same subject there seems to be supplementary question to this based on the most recent breaches that we know about. And he says given that we now know WQL (Walleys Quarry Limited) have continued to accept gypsum in waste will you confirm that new waste as defined in your own terms is also part of the ongoing problem? Mike Jenkins, you’ve been looking at Richard and Mark’s question. 

MJ: Thank you both for the questions as Marc explained a few minutes ago the current situation is much improved. Levels of odorous Hydrogen Sulphide in the bulk gas have dropped from six and a half thousand parts per million on the 2nd of June 2021 to fourteen hundred parts per million as of the 20th of September 2022. To help combat odour issues at site in active phases we required to progressively install gas extraction systems within the operational cell to collect all the gases being generated. Significant volumes of gas are being collected from this system and safely destroyed in the gas plant. We report the volume of gas captured in our weekly updates. In our update on the 15th of September 2022, so last week and the rate was at approximately three and a half thousand cubic metres per hour. So, we’ve seen significant increases within those levels. As a preventative measure we’ve also required Walleys Quarry Limited to revise its waste acceptance procedures to avoid the acceptance of high Sulphide bearing waste and currently carrying out an audit to assess implementation of these procedures. Waste producer sites have also been a subject of audits focusing on the production of trommel finds with a view to avoiding gypsum contamination of waste disposed of inappropriately at landfills. Other measures as set out in our plan to reduce the emissions which was recently been reviewed and updated and will be available on the Citizen Space webpage shortly. 

PRES: Thank you Mike. Next up Simmo and he writes to say; in response to my question last month, you stated that you have no power to force lorries to come to the Quarry it is down to the Police to bring them. There have been two operations one which includes your crime team and the Police and then there was one with the Environment Agency’s crime team, Staffordshire Police, HMRC which is His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs Fraud office and DVSA. Simmo finishes by saying, why are these not carried out more regularly? Marc we’ll go to you. 

ML: Thanks Neil and thanks Simmo for that question. So, these sort of joint operations as you can probably imagine are very resource-intensive and at present we have gathered the information that we need so repetition of this type of joint operation is not necessary. We, of course continue to review that and will of course look for support of those partners again in the future if we need to do so. We, as the Environment Agency are still very active at the site, we are continuing very frequent visits to the site through our regulatory work and to date we have carried out 58 visits to the site in 2022, which is a significant amount of visits compared to what we would normally do at a landfill site. 

PRES: Ok, thank you Marc. Mark with a K is next, and Mark says, it’s clear evident pollution from the site is contaminating the local environment and affecting the health and well being of residents. Pockets of Hydrogen Sulphide were detected several times along with the stink of fresh waste. He says, is it clear now the municipal waste should be stopped as there is nothing to prevent odour contaminating residents’ properties? The site long term because of its Hydrogen Sulphide problem be made a dry site with an impermeable capping barrier, this will take away the H2O preventing biological activity with the SRB. Mike, you’ve been listening to this one do you have a response for Mark please? 

MJ: I do, thanks Neil and Mark thank you for the question. So, one of the main ways to prevent emissions from the site is through capping, the laying of the Phase 1 geo-membrane has been completed and is now being covered by soil protection layer which is 300 millimetres or 30 centimetres deep. The Phase 2 temporary cap is in place which preforms as well as a permanent cap in containing landfill gas over a shorter period of time, so, until the permanent cap is applied. Temporary capping is necessary when further waste is required for example, to cover the access road to finalise the site profile. Ongoing improvements to the gas infrastructure mean more landfill gas containing Hydrogen Sulphide is being extracted from the site for destruction. As we’ve indicated earlier today the concentration of Hydrogen Sulphide within the landfill gas extraction lines is reduced by two-thirds since we intervened last year. An impermeable barrier won’t stop landfill gas containing Hydrogen Sulphide being generated. There are a number of competing bacteria that can create either Methane or Hydrogen Sulphide via an interaction between the deposited waste and leachate in the landfill. With our focus on waste acceptance, we expect the operator to eliminate as far as possible any waste that has a high sulphide bearing content. Walleys Quarry is drawing leachate from 25 wells currently and is planning further works, 5 further dedicated wells to enable further leachate to be extracted. These proposed measures reflect a strategy which includes making a landfill a drier site. 

PRES: Ok, thank you very much indeed Mike. Finally, then Louise and Louise has a question around what she calls the perfumes, Louise writes to say: you gave me details of the perfumes that Red are using but I can’t find details of them anywhere. I would like them to stop these perfumes because they’re making me ill or could you please advise what else I can do? I’ve lived in my home for 35 years and can’t afford to move. Marc, over to you. 

ML: Thanks Neil and Louise thank you for that question. So, as you said in the last video in August, we did provide some information around the perfumes that you’ve described that have been used in the deodorising system. So, just to give a bit more information that might help so the product that they use is a product that’s called ODR and what we will do is we will put a comment of the name of that product in the chat function below this video so that you can go into a search engine and be able to look up more information. So, just for reference for those who haven’t seen the August video and me taking about this previously, we did obviously explain that the product that is being used this ODR product in the deodorising system is a non-toxic food biodegradable product and is mixed with just mains water. That’s then obviously put into the deodorising system and Walleys Quarry Limited use 2 fragrances. They use a fragrance which is called Cotton Fresh and the other called Cherry. We’ve obviously spoken to Walleys Quarry previously about the issues that you’ve raised to us around the deodorising system and the mist that was going beyond the site boundary. They’ve obviously taken steps to look at that and they have also reviewed the amount of deodoriser it uses within the system because we understand that it can be as offensive to some people as the odour it seeks to mask. So those steps have been taken but hopefully Louise that information that we provide here now will be able to give you some background to go and look at the product itself to see what’s in it. 

** END OF Q&A, Presenter wraps up asking for feedback and advises Questions Thread open below. **

PRES: Ok, thank you, That’s the end of this month’s questions for September Q&A but I’m going to throw back now to Marc Lidderth who has some information to update us on with regards to next months Q&A and indeed Q&A’s going forward. 

ML: Thanks Neil and firstly thanks to everyone that’s posed questions to us for this month’s Q&A, but also to all previous ones that we’ve been doing. I’ve probably been, or I have been involved in every Q&A for each month but as of end of this month September 2022, I will be returning back to my substantive post here within the Environment Agency and will be moving away from the Project Executive role for the regulation of Walleys Quarry. So, its just to advise and announce that as of the end of this month I will be moving away, and my colleague Andrew Hitchings will be coming in to replace me. Andrew will take over with things like the Facebook Q&A sessions obviously working still with Mike Jenkins who is on with me today and both Mike and Andrew will continue with the Project Executive roles in dealing with the regulations of Walleys Quarry Landfill. So, Neil thank you very much for that and I will hand back to you just to close the video off. 

PRES: Ok thank you too of course Marc, Marc Lidderth there and Mike Jenkins and just a reminder of course that you can access the websites and the links that we referred to in this video by clicking on those links in the chat box just directly below. We will open the next questions thread in the Facebook group at 9am on Monday the 3rd of October and it will remain open for 5 days until 5pm on Friday 7th of October. Please post all of your questions there during this particular period. Goodbye and thank you for watching