Scottish Water notifies community of increased risk of foul odour emissions

Many members of our community have had their quality of life negatively impacted during a recent spike in foul odour emissions from Seafield, for which one of Scottish Waters Dundee based managers issued an apology to our community.

However, Leithers have today been given notice by Scottish Water that there may be a further increase in foul odour emissions from the site with measures being put into place to help mitigate the increased odours. In a statement published today, and also emailed to Leith Links Community Council, Scottish Water said:

As part of our commitment to keep the community updated, we would like to advise that there are no planned maintenance activities taking place at Seafield WwTW this weekend.

However, following the recent extended dry spell, we have started to see some heavy rainfall with more forecast over the next couple of days. The change in weather means that solids that have accumulated in the network are now arriving at Seafield. This has entered the treatment process.

The wind is forecast to remain onshore for the majority of the weekend which raises the odour risk for the community.

In order to mitigate against elevated odours, the sludge that is arriving is being dosed to remove some of the compounds which cause odour. With no planned maintenance, all processing equipment and streams are fully operational which will allow for maximum processing throughout today and over the weekend.

While also campaigning for long term solutions, it is vitally important that we keep reporting odour nuisance whenever it occurs, to demonstrate the scale of the problem and the impact on the local community.

Leith Links Community Council continues to encourage any member of our community who is negatively impacted by the release of foul odour emissions from the Seafield site to report such incidents via our website.

Our online reporting tool not only notifies Scottish Water, but simultaneously informs the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Veolia UK, Leith Links Community Council, City of Edinburgh Council (officers and Councillors Booth, Munro & McVey), the Scottish Governments Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and local MSP Ben MacPherson.