Category: Seafield Noise and Odour

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Stinking Seafield! Scottish Water replies…..

After weeks of appalling sewage smells, and after sending through an unprecedented high number of complaints from the local community, on our online forms,  the Community Council has today received this missive from Scottish Water:

Dear stakeholder,

I am writing to update you about the odour issues that have been impacting customers living close to the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works in recent days.

You will be aware Scotland is currently experiencing the driest start to the year in more than 60 years.

This long period of dry, hot weather has combined with sustained onshore winds at Seafield creating a ‘perfect storm’ where slow moving sewage is already giving off a strong odour by the time it arrives at the works.

This is simply because with less surface and grey water entering the sewer system, sewage is more concentrated than usual.

An independent review commissioned by the Scottish Government in 2017 highlighted this increased risk of odour as an unavoidable consequence of the weather conditions we are currently experiencing.

This can be mitigated by wind direction but we are also experiencing an unprecedented level of onshore wind for this time of year.

However, there are some immediate actions that we are implementing. 

  • We have increased chemical dosing at Seafield and are working with partners to ensure this is at levels that will have an effect on the first point where sewage arrives at Seafield.
  • We are switching to a specific chemical where the sewage enters Seafield that ‘targets’ the specific odour causing most of the issues.
  • Further discussions are being held today, and a site meeting tomorrow to evaluate additional measures that could include increasing dosing points that again specifically target the inlet works.
  • All non-essential maintenance activity has been suspended, and this will remain in place for the remainder of this week and then reviewed again.

Please be reassured every complaint is being looked at, investigated and acted upon and we will continue to work closely with the site operators Veolia to address the problem.

We will be in touch with an update when we have more information.

Matt Bingham

Senior Communications & Engagement Consultant

Scottish Water

Buchanan Gate Business Park,

Cumbernauld Road, Stepps,

Glasgow

G33 6FB

Tel: 07709 504 350

Email:matt.bingham@scottishwater.co.uk

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Next meeting of Leith Links Community Council, Duncan Place, 6:30pm, Monday 26 May 2025.

The next meeting of Leith Links Community Council will be held in person at Duncan Place at 6:30pm on Monday 26 May 2025.

Minutes of previous meeting are here.

Agenda is here.

This will be the second meeting of the new Community Council, as elected in March 2025, and we will welcome our new Community Councillors, and any local residents who wish to attend. Thre are quite a few things going on locally so it’s good to catch up!

A Teams link will be set up for councillors and local residents who are unable to attend in person, but we do not have the technical facilities to guarantee a good ‘hybrid’ set up.

Please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk if you wish to receive an online link.

 

Community Councils Together

The community council elections are taking place across Edinburgh. The three Leith community councils have a stall at Leith Market, today 15th February. If you want to find out more about what we do, please come along and speak to us. We’re always willing to listen to local residents.

Hello Sun! ……Hello Stench?

As the weather warms and softens a little, local people will have noticed the return of our old friend(?),  the disgusting ‘Seafield Stench’.

Despite the assurances of the sewage plant operator Veolia, that the weather and the smells are not connected, we have all noticed that the Stench seems to descend on sunny days, just to try us. Report smells here!

Same campaign success, some progress?

Although it is a long-running saga, local people may remember that our years of campaigning DID get the Scottish Government to commit funding-

  1.  – to build a £100,000 million state-of-the-art new Sewage Plant, starting in 2029 when the current private finance agreement with Veolia comes to an end, and
  2.  – in the meantime, to spend £10 million on improvements to the existing plant, aimed at reducing odour problems.

These improvements are, sadly, still at the procurement stage, and they are not expected to ‘break ground’ until early 2025. Though they may well improve things longer term, it’s possible that there will be more, rather than fewer, stink incidents next year, as the work disrupts the normal running of the plant. So it’s important to keep them on their toes!

Reporting Portal Working again, please report!

Those in authority have openly admitted that our reporting facility (see on this page), which so many of you used to great effect, was a huge factor in getting the Government to commit to spending on Seafield. Unfortunately, for the past few months it hasn’t been working properly due to technical glitches

However, we have got the report form system working again and some of you have already been using it to complain about our recent, treasured sunny days becoming stinky days.

So please take the few moments needed to report every time you smell sewage from Seafield. Your reports go to every official who has anything to do with Seafield Waste Water Treatment facility, right up to the Scottish Government Minister, who gets every email!

It worked the last time, let’s keep the pressure up!

Report smells here! leithlinkscc.org.uk/seafieldnuisancereportform

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Next meeting of Leith Links Community Council, Monday 27th June at 6:30pm, online

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 27th June at 6:30pm, online (Microsoft Teams)

Papers for the meeting will be issued soon.

Scottish Water and the operators of Seafield, Veolia, will be attending to give an update on the sewage plant and answer questions about recent odour issues.

As always, our meetings are open to interested members of the public. If you wish to attend, please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent an invitation / link for the meeting.

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Leith Links Community Council next meeting Monday 28th February 6:30 online

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 28th, February at 6:30pm, online (Microsoft Teams)

The Agenda for the next meeting and minutes of January’s meeting will be issued shortly

As always, our meetings are open to interested members of the public. If you wish to attend, please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent an invitation / link for the meeting.

Thank you for your support

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WARNING Seafield Update for plant maintenance

The Community Counci received the following message from Scottish Water regarding work starting tomorrow, Monday 13th December. If you experience any odour issues please report them through the community council webpage and to Scottish Water.

Dear Stakeholder,

We wanted to let you know that Veolia, the operator at Seafield WwTW, will be commencing significant planned maintenance to one of the Primary Settlement Tanks on Monday 13th December. This will involve draining and cleaning the tank over the next week.The current weather forecast suggests favourable conditions during this period.Both SEPA and the City of Edinburgh Council have been informed.We will issue a further update once Veolia has completed the work.

 

 

 

 

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Scottish Water’s Seafield Shenanigans

At the last Seafield Stakeholders’ meeting we complained yet again about the fact that our small voluntary Community Council has been doing all the work of effectively gathering complaints about Seafield smells, while big powerful and well-funded organisations like SEPA, Veolia and Scottish Water just sit back.

This imbalance of power:effort led our MSP to charge Scottish Water with the duty to meet with us to explore ways of working together to create a more effective complaints system for all.

However, when we met, we found that Scottish Water had already used our template to create a new reporting system which is in their control exclusively. We in the community are to have no access to complaints (which they call ‘observations!) This, we were told, was because of privacy issues.

We felt that this action was a betrayal of trust and goodwill, and that we were left with the difficult choice of either dropping our own complaints system in favour of one we will have no access to, or keeping ours and having two systems running at once, causing confusion for local residents.

The Community Council felt overwhelmingly that it was vital that we keep our independent complaints system, so that we and others have evidence and data  around which to campaign.  You will see it is still there on our website, to use.

Although winter does not tend to be a ‘smelly season’, that can start as early as February, and we ask you to please continue to use our complaints facility whenever you notice a Seafield stench, whether it be of sewage, burning rubber or other chemical smells. Don’t hesitate, it only takes a few minutes!

 

 

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Faeces in the Forth….?

Did you see the shocking recent report by The Ferret about Scottish beaches polluted by sewage? Portobello was one of them.

LLCC was concerned about the statistics as there have been issues in the past with beach pollution at Portobello connected to untreated sewage being released into the Forth from the Seafield plant. We felt it could be significant that the pollution was noticeably worse on Portobello West beach (ie. nearer to Seafield) than on the central beach. You can read our letter here, along with an extract from the original report.

Scottish Water have said that there is no link to Seafield Waste Water Treatment Plant. The official line is that sewage overflow is caused by heavy rain overwhelming the drainage system (they say overflow should be drained a mile out in the Forth, from a drainage pipe / tunnel, not near any beach). SEPA states that heavy rain washes animal faeces off the land into rivers / sea. LLCC has asked for further investigation.

MP for Edinburgh East Tommy Sheppard wrote to the Minister for the Environment at Holyrood about it, and you can read his letter here. Tommy Sheppard also said: “I’ve sent the attached letter to Mairi McAllan, the new Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform which I trust relates your concerns appropriately. My office has also sent a copy to SEPA for their information. I’ll of course update you on the response I receive”.

 

 

 

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Seafield Update

Information received from Scottish Water:

“We wanted to make you aware that Veolia plans to clean the storm tanks at Seafield between Monday 21st September and Wednesday 23 September, next week.  This is the first available opportunity to complete this maintenance task following the recent heavy rainfall in the catchment area, and whilst weather conditions are forecast to be favourable.

In addition, as part of planned maintenance activities at the site, Primary Settlement Tank 1 (PST1) is to be drained and cleaned. This activity has been scheduled to commence today with work expected to take approximately one week.

Conditions are currently forecast to be favourable and every effort will be made to minimise the odour risk when carrying out these activities.

Both SEPA and the City of Edinburgh Council have been informed.

We will issue a further update once Veolia has completed the work.

Note: A link to this communication will be posted on social media and also on our website  – https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/seafield

As always if you smell any sewage it’s important that you complete our report form.

I can assure you that all public bodies and elected councillors sit up and pay attention to every complaint made. Your MSP Ben MacPherson has also worked hard on your behalf to secure a commitment by the Scottish Government to invest no regrets funding to reduce odour emissions in 2020/21 and a new state of the art sewage works will be built on the same site in 2030 hopefully to end the Seafield Stench.

Jim Scanlon

Chair, Leith Links Community Council

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