Landfill regulator insists court-ordered gas reduction on course to be achieved
At the latest community engagement event, the Environment Agency says last month’s High Court ruling has not changed its approach to the controversial Walleys Quarry. Phil Corrigan reports...
THE Environment Agency says it is on course for achieving the High Court-ordered reduction in landfill gas emissions from Walleys Quarry by the end of the year.
Poorly five-year-old Mathew Richards won his case against the EA over the regulation of the controversial Silverdale landfill last month, with Mr Justice Fordham ruling the agency has not ‘done what compliance with the applicable legal duties requires’.
The judge said off-site odours would have to be reduced to five parts per billion (ppb) ‘as early as possible’ and to 1ppb by January 2022.
Marc Lidderth, below, the EA’S project executive for Walleys Quarry, said that levels of hydrogen sulphide gas had now fallen below 5ppb at all four air quality monitoring units in the areas near the landfill site.
And he said that the levels were now below 1ppb at all but one of the sites, with recorded emissions still being higher in Galingale View.
The EA has been the subject of numerous complaints from residents who feel it has not done enough to resolve the problems at Walleys Quary
– a view supported by Mr Justice Fordham’s ruling.
But Mr Lidderth, who was speaking at the latest Walleys Quarry community engagement event, insisted that the High Court ruling had made no real difference to the EA’S approach, and that the agency was always aiming to achieve the reductions by the end of the year.
He said: “The ruling hasn’t given the EA any additional duties or powers to close the landfill site or stop waste going in, which we know a number of people have been looking for since the ruling was made.
“When the ruling was made we provided a description around the strategy that we’re applying to this landfill site, which is to contain, capture and destroy the gas that’s being emitted from that site. “And that strategy is still where we’re heading with this, and we are working within the timeframe that was set in the ruling by the judge to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible for the community.
“The levels we’re seeing at the moment are reducing on a monthby-month basis.
“When you look at the data from our air quality monitoring units, they are showing that since May levels are reducing.
“The latest data for August shows that at all four monitoring units were now below the 5ppb – which was the first ruling which the judge said we had to achieve as soon as possible.
“There is still one unit which is remaining relatively high, and that’s the one in Galingale View. The other three units have been recording below 1ppb.
“So now we’re focusing on the gas that’s still coming from the landfill site through the strategy of contain, capture and destroy to bring that level down.
“We’ve firmly got in mind the timeframe set by the judge, which is towards the end of the year.”
Mr Lidderth said that the EA had instructed landfill operator Walleys Quary Ltd to carry out various actions to reduce gas emissions, such as capping parts of the site and putting in additional wells to capture the gas, and that this approach had not changed since the ruling.
He added: “The ruling hasn’t meant we’ve done anything differently in terms of pace – we’ve always been going at the fastest pace we possibly can under the duties and powers we have, without overstepping anything legal from our perspective which could give the operator cause to appeal against our decisions.”
The EA is appealing against aspects of Mr Justice Fordham’s ruling.
But Mr Lidderth said this was nothing to do with the actions being taken at Walleys Quarry, but in relation to the ‘appropriate role of the court’.
The engagement event, which was held at Bradwell Lodge Community Centre, was the second face-to-face event organised by partner agencies since the start of the pandemic.
Members of the public were given the chance to quiz representatives of the EA, the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England), Newcastle and Staffordshire councils, and Staffordshire Police on the issues at Walleys Quarry.