Enforcement notice served on Pembrokeshire's Withyhedge landfill site

Residents who have been campaigning for action to be taken against the odours from the Withyhedge landfill site, to the north of Haverfordwest, say the pong is like ‘a stink bomb on steroids’.

It was hoped that a solution to the smell could be reached by the end of February or the beginning of March, but a proposal from the site operator to carry out work to quickly reduce odours has been rejected by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) as it contained ‘many unknowns with potential problems for the future’.

'Difficult message'

The NRW acknowledged this would be a ‘difficult message’ for those affected by the smells.

The site is operated by Withyhedge Landfill (Resources Management Ltd) (RML) and has permission to deposit 250,000 tonnes of waste a year.

NRW is now hoping that th enforcement notice will see the resolution of the odour issue by the beginning of April.

A number of complaints from the public have been made to Pembrokeshire County Council and NRW since October of smells coming from the site.

In December, the council’s planning and public protection services officers and officers from Natural Resources Wales visited the facility and said they would be monitoring the situation.

The operators of the Withyhedge site have permission to deposit 250,000 tonnes of waste a year. (Image: Stephen Crabb)

Apologies

RML previously apologised for the smell and said it was trying to 'rectify the issue with immediate effect'.

This week, NRW gave its apologies to the public for the time taken to provide this latest update on the site and any regulatory actions, but said that the situation had been ‘dynamic’.

The proposal to quickly reduce smells involved engineering works to contain, manage and collect landfill gas on an uncapped area of waste.

However, it would have resulted in the site not being compliant with its permit, said NRW.

Notice deadline

The authority said that the enforcement notice served on RML outlined the steps required of them to return to compliance and complete the landfill engineering work to contain and collect landfill gas.

It added: "Based on our existing understanding of the primary source of odour, the issue should be resolved by a notice deadline of 5 April 2024.

"However, work onsite is progressing daily, and we anticipate noticeable reductions in landfill gas emissions and odours in the coming weeks.

"The notice served this week is linked to ongoing investigations into permit non-compliances and therefore we cannot make this publicly available at this time."

Relocation of waste

NRW explained that as part of the work required by the notice, waste from the top of the area to be capped is being relocated into Cell 8, the current operational part of the landfill.

"We are aware this activity is highly visible from surrounding communities and have received reports of ‘white smoke’ as the waste is disturbed.

"NRW had officers on site last week and inspected this area of the landfill. We believe the visual emissions are water vapour, caused by the underlying waste beginning to decay and as part of the process generating heat.

"Our inspection last week also focussed on Cell 8, following recent reports of the odour being of a waste, opposed to landfill gas nature. We did not detect waste odours emanating specifically from Cell 8. Downwind of the area to be capped a faint waste odour was noted on the landfill, and at one offsite location. A strong landfill gas odour was also detected offsite. We will continue to monitor both types of odours in the surrounding communities.

"We appreciate that it may feel as though limited action takes place in response to incidents of odour reported to us."

How to report

The public is encouraged to continue reporting incidents.

NRW continued: "At a time when we expect to see work at the landfill start to result in a reduction of fugitive landfill gas emissions and odour, these reports will be especially important.  They will help us assess the effectiveness of the onsite activity, and also if there are other sources of odour.

"All reports, whether made by phone, the generic online reporting form, or the specific Withyhedge Landfill reporting form are logged on our Wales Incident Reporting System (WIRS). Each report has a unique reference number and is forwarded through to the regulatory team.

* Anyone affected by the odour or who has concerns about pollution from Withyhedge Landfill should contact NRW's 'report an incident' site  or call 0300 0653000 (open 24 hours a day), providing a description of the type of smell being experienced.