The Environment Agency has claimed that the potential for odour arising from the Path Head landfill site, owned by Suez, has ‘greatly reduced’.
The Agency has said that the company’s efforts to tackle odour at the site have “progressed well” since issues were detected in 2016.
Capping layers (Picture: EA)
In February last year, Suez received enforcement notices from the EA, after heavy rainfall and accumulation of surface water at the site resulted in complaints of odour emissions from residents (see letsrecycle.com story).
Path Head lies close to the villages of Stargate, Crookhill, Stella and Ryton near Gateshead and was permitted to accept 600,000 tonnes a year of non-hazardous waste.
The site was operation from March 2007 until January 2017, and has since closed its gates to more incoming waste.
Works
Suez had installed gas extraction wells and capping to adhere to the enforcement notice and has since completed further improvements in the lead up to the site’s closure.
Since January, the site has removed the weighbridges, applied a clay layer across the uncapped areas and removed vegetation on a large earth mound.
Following this, Suez installed the remaining gas extraction wells in March. The entire gas system now collects about 3,000 cubic metres per hour of gas at this site.
And in April, the company replaced a faulty extraction well which housed pumping equipment which removes the contaminated water from the site.
Placement of restoration soils (Picture: EA)
Since May, Suez has been installing the engineered cap over the remaining uncapped areas. Once this is finished, Suez will undertake the final work of placing top soil, planting and building any fencing or footpaths.
Odour
The Agency said: “As the works have progressed the potential for odour coming from the site has greatly reduced. Once the cap is fully installed these emissions should further reduce and become negligible.”
A spokesperson for Suez told letsrecycle.com that: “The Environment Agency’s report is an accurate reflection of work that has been carried out over the past six months to close, cap and prepare for restoration works at Path Head.
“We have made a substantial investment in this site to ensure that we can continue to manage it to the highest standard during its aftercare.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com General
