The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Waste stink threatens to spoil summer fun
Dunfermline: Stench is coming from distillery waste which has been spread on land
A sickening stench threatening to spoil the holiday weekend for residents in west Fife has been blamed on activities at a former opencast mine.
Complaints have been flooding into Fife Council’s environmental health team and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) about the bad odour in the Dunfermline area, described as “horrific” and “unbearable” by locals on social media, apparently emanating from the site at Muir Dean in Crossgates.
Fife Council said the issue was caused by distillery waste being spread on the land and revealed it was considering legal action against the site owners.
Ross Macfarlane, 29, who stays in the Duloch area, was so troubled by the nasty niff that he went straight to the source, where he was told waste was being used to fertilise the land and help the grass grow.
Now he fears the activities threaten to “wreck” the summer of thousands of people if action is not taken soon.
“Unless you smell it, it’s almost impossible to comprehend what it smells like – it’s 100 times worse than you would imagine,” he said.
“It started about three days ago and we just thought it was the fields like
You couldn’t even go in the house because the smell was coming through the vents
everyone else, and it wasn’t as bad the other day because the wind was blowing in a different direction.
“But when we came back on Thursday night, you couldn’t even go in the house because the smell was coming through the vents.
“It would be nice to get out in the garden and enjoy the summer, but it’s unbearable.
“My worry is the scale of it – I can’t even put into words the size of the area – and if people don’t do something then it could last for months.”
Council officials made a site visit and urged locals not to contact them, saying legal action is being looked at.
“The council has been assured that there are no plans to spread any further material,” a spokesperson said.
“The source of the odour is coming from approximately 1000 tonnes of limed distillery waste which was spread by the landowner at Muirdean on Wednesday and Thursday.
“This waste is a by-product of the distilling process and is not, as reported by some, animal or human waste.
“The waste is very odorous and this has been further heightened by the hot weather and the wind blowing directly towards a large area of housing.
“Generally odours of this nature dissipate over a day or two.”
A Sepa spokesperson said: “Sepa officers and Fife Council separately today attended a site at Muir Dean and confirmed that the source of this odour has been the spreading of limed distillery waste by the landowner. The distillery waste is being ploughed in in order to alleviate odour and there are currently no plans to spread any further material at the site.”