Tag: Seafield Sewage Works

Scottish Water & Veolia issue apology for Seafield stench

Leith Links Community Council has received 37 reports relating to odours from Seafield since 1 April 2020.

 

The community in the Leith Links area has been plagued for years by nuisance & intrusive foul odours from Seafield however, earlier this year it was announced that a multi million pound investment in the Seafield site would likely lead to a reduction in the amount of foul odours affecting our community.

 

Members of our community have been using our website to tell us, local politicians and the authorities how their quality of life has been impacted, some examples are;

 

It made it difficult to breathe and I felt nauseous. Had to close our windows.

 

Had to come in from garden, one of few pleasures in lockdown.

 

Couldn’t exercise and ruined our only time outdoors during the lockdown had to close windows and couldn’t even stand to be in our own garden.

 

It made me feel sick.

In response to recent complaints, followed up by Leith Links Community Council, an apology was issued by Bill Elliot, Stakeholder Development Manager (Scotland), Scottish Water on 15 April 2020.

 

Dear Seafield Stakeholders,

 

 

We have received an increase in odour complaints in the Seafield area recently and Scottish Water and Veolia apologise for this.

 

 

Veolia began essential maintenance of the storm tanks at Seafield WWTW at the start of the current lockdown period. This work was paused as a result of a change in weather conditions and, in consultation with regulators, it was agreed that it would be sensible to complete the remaining essential maintenance at the earliest opportunity.

 

 

In order to mitigate the odour risk that continues until this maintenance is complete, we will take further operational measures over the coming days – including using chemical dosing – in order to help minimise the issue.

 

 

Please be assured we will have this resolved as quickly as possible and we will update stakeholders when this work will be carried out and completed.

 

We thank our customers for their patience.

 

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Seafield – Stakeholder Update

Notification from Scottish Water of work being carried out at Seafield. If there are any odour issues please report them through the Community Council website

Further to the update we issued last week this is being sent to confirm cleaning work on the primary settlement tank is ongoing at Seafield WwTW. In addition, given the current dry conditions, a decision has been taken to utilise the contractor and other resources on site to clean the storm tanks. It is vitally important these works are carried out without delay, whilst this contractor has available manpower.

 

Veolia and its contractors are working to complete this work as quickly as possible given the current favourable weather conditions. However, please note onshore winds are forecast for a few days from tomorrow onwards. We would be grateful for continuing community support to share this message locally to provide assurance efforts continue to complete this work as quickly as possible and to minimise odour risk where possible.

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Scottish Water announces major improvement works at Seafield

Scottish Water have today announced  a multi million pound improvement programme at Seafield. Scottish Water logo

Leith Links Community Council for a number of years has been working hard to represent the views & concerns of our local community as a solution was sought to ongoing odour nuisance from the site.

The press release from Scottish Water is copied below:

» Read more

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Leith Links Residents Association lodge formal complaint against Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in relation to Seafield odour

Leith Links Residents Association recently undertook a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to pay for a solicitor to represent community complaints regarding odour from Seafield.Image result for seafield odour

Having raised sufficient funds they engaged Ian Cowan to write to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on their behalf.

 

 

 

 

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Feedback – Seafield Complaints

Feedback

Thank you to all you 60+ local people who have used our on-line reporting form to complain about the dreadful series of ‘odour and noise nuisance events’ from Seafield over the past couple of weeks.

The stench recently has indeed been appalling, unusually widespread, and it greatly upset many people in the community who were trying to enjoy the beautiful late summer sunshine at the end of September/early October. The noise must have made the experience doubly unbearable for those who suffered it.

Please rest assured your comments have been noted, both by us and by the various elected and other officials to whom they are forwarded. We are considering what action to take next, but it is really important that you don’t stop reporting the smells and noise whenever they occur. 

It is obvious that, although the numbers are growing, many people still don’t know about our reporting system, or don’t believe it is worthwhile using it, as they may feel that ‘no-one listens’. Please believe that it has already made a difference and will continue to do so, so please encourage neighbours, friends, anyone in Leith who is affected, to get into the habit of always reporting, even if well after the event – it is still recorded.

Seafield odour complaints

There has been a spike in complaints relating to Seafield over recent days.  Since Friday 20 September 2019 we have received over forty complaints relating to odour.

Click on the image to complete our web form.

Reporting odour from Seafield supports us and others to campaign for an effective long term solution to the issue by building a catalogue of incidents, it also allows us to challenge the responsible bodies about specific incidents to see what happened and how it can be avoided in the future.

When you report any odour issues via our website the simple web form is sent to a number of people & organisations:

  • Councillors Booth, McVey & Munro
  • Ben MacPherson MSP
  • Roseanna Cunningham MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform)
  • City of Edinburgh Council
  • Scottish Water
  • Veolia
  • Scottish Environmental Protection Agency

 

Click on the image for more information.

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Leith Links Residents Association launch crowdfunding campaign

Leith Links Residents Association have launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund a solicitor to act on their behalf in relation to the ongoing Seafield odour issue.

Further information can be found on their Facebook page.

 

Nota bene:  Leith Links Community Council is featuring this crowdfunding campaign as local news, it has as not as yet given its formal backing to the campaign.

For more information please click on the image.

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Leith Links Community Council Meeting, 26th August 6:30pm, Leith Community Centre

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday 26th August , at 6:30pm in the Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate.

If you live in the area, you are warmly welcomed to attend.

This is also election year for Community Councils and we hope that you may be keen to join us. If you are available to volunteer in your spare time and have an interest in a wide range of local issues we would be pleased to hear from you. The Community Council election period starts on 9th September.

 

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SEAFIELD SMELL WARNING from Scottish Water

Scottish Water said today –

“We have had a recent wet spell of weather and as a result rain filled the storm tanks at Seafield on a number of occasions.  When inlet flow conditions have allowed, in between rainfall events, Veolia has drained as much of the contents as possible.

Veolia continually assesses weather forecasts and has been minimising the contents of storm tanks in readiness for full draining and cleaning.  Cleaning starts Tuesday 11 June. Although the wind is forecast to be onshore conditions are due to be breezy and whilst the contents pose a lesser risk of generating odour, Veolia will seek to minimise odour emissions using all measures outlined in the site Odour Management Plan which may involve the application of odour reducing materials.  The work is scheduled to be completed by Wednesday 12 June. We will provide an update once the cleaning work has completed.”

What good is a warning? We can’t choose to switch off our noses!

The ‘odour reducing materials’ that they mention  mean applying chemicals  – usually potassium permanganate  – and sometimes the ‘antiseptic’smell of those chemicals can be just as offensive as the smell of sewage. There is also a risk of iodoform gas forming due to contact with sea water. Scottish Water says its not dangerous but other research says it is!

Seafield can’t cope with hot weather, it can’t cope with rain. Is it fit for purpose?

Your Community Council had another meeting this week with MSP Ben McPherson, who is writing again to Minister Rosanna Cunningham about the situation for local residents. It seems new investment is coming – but not nearly quickly enough.

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The ‘noise in the night’ explained…

Last Wednesday night / Thursday morning (15/16 May) was the night from hell, with both a loud high pitched continuous whining noise, PLUS a constant ear-splitting siren from Seafield sewage works keeping people awake all night from Bonnington to Craigentinny and all points in between (i.e. mainly, the Leith Links area!). This was a record high for noise complaints, and people in our community are angry and frustrated (and tired!).

Naturally Leith Links Community Council reported the matter, as did many individual residents. We have received this report from City of Edinburgh Environmental Protection Dept.

Veolia have investigated and advised me (Council officer) that they had an alarm activation. Their Sludge Import Tank reached its high level and this triggered an audible alarm.  The tank level is higher than normal in order to minimise the overall odour risk within the Seafield site.  It is rare for this alarm to trigger during the night shift as most tanker imports are limited to the day shift – however an overnight import delivery seems to have triggered the alarm.  The alarm stays on until the sludge level within the import tank is reduced (by the processing of sludge through the sludge treatment centre on site).

Veolia shall be reviewing the arrangements for this alarm further today, and will advise me on progress or future actions.  Scottish Water shall also reduce their road tanker imports to Seafield in the short term, which will reduce the rate of level rise within the Sludge Import Tank.

Veolia have apologised for the inconvenience and disturbance caused within the community, which I agreed to pass on to residents who complained.

To add insult to injury, sleepless people have had to stay indoors and keep their windows closed all day yesterday (hottest day of the year so far) due to the overwhelming smell of sewage pervading the local area. What does Seafield have to say about that? They say – we did warn you we were cleaning the tanks…

We think that while it is good to get warnings and explanations, that is not enough. Action is needed. Change is overdue. This community wants to see our Council standing up to Scottish Water / Veolia, and enforcing its own laws and ‘Code of Practice’, to protect our community’s basic quality of life from the endless nuisances caused by Seafield.

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