Action on Westerleigh smell

There was lots to discuss at the latest meeting of the working group set up to tackle the bad odours affecting Westerleigh. Wessex Water has been monitoring the sewers for odours at various points around the village and the Environment Agency has been analysing the data and suggesting improvements.

• Since the particularly bad airborne smell in the last week of March, Tulip, the owners of the abattoir, have changed their processes. They are now dosing the effluent in their effluent tank with a chemical that kills the bacteria causing the smell.
• Tulip have also made changes to reduce the chances of odorous gases building up in the rising main that joins the abattoir to the public sewers. The monitoring carried out by Wessex Water suggests that this has improved the situation significantly, although more work needs to be done investigating a small number of isolated incidents.
• The monitoring also shows that the dosing at the Kidney Hill pumping station has been successful in addressing the problems originating from there, so Wessex Water will install a permanent dosing system. Wessex Water have promised to look more closely at what appears to be a separate problem in the sewers on the eastern side of the village.
• Action is being or has been taken on a number of more localised problems, such as a ditch contaminated with sewage from an overflowing cess pit on Westerleigh Road, an obstructed venting column at Broad Lane and a blocked private drain in Old Mill Close.

Since the meeting, Claire Young has asked Street Care to clear some blocked rainwater drains in the village and South Glos Environmental Health officers to re-investigate a chemical smell at the Shorthill/Westerleigh Hill crossroads. They said the TCP-like odour was definitely from the high friction road surface but the smell appeared to be reducing, albeit over a longer time than we were promised. They also provided reassurance that a roof on a nearby building, which some were concerned posed an asbestos risk, was not a danger to public health.

The Environment Agency are happy to co-ordinate smell reports if you are not sure what the cause might be and don’t know who best to contact. You can ring them on 0800 80 70 60.