The Environment Agency today announced that they have issued yet another enforcement notice to Walleys Quarry Limited.
This Category 2 notice indicates a 'significant' breach, this time related to inadequate capping on the flanks, which is believed to be responsible for some of the spikes in odour seen earlier this year.
This follows an enforcement notice in May of this year. This news demonstrates that, even when under the heaviest scrutiny, the operator continues to cut corners.
The EA have said in their statement: "We assessed this as a category 2 non-compliance according to the Compliance Classification Scheme (CCS), as it is reasonably foreseeable that there could be a significant impact on quality of life if not addressed promptly and adequately. This is due to an increased risk of fugitive emissions of landfill gas with the potential for off-site odour to cause offence to local residents."
I would hope and expect that the operator will be prosecuted for this breach, together with the many others they have racked up. This would appear to be indicated under section 8 of the EA guidance on enforcement decisions: https://www.gov.uk/.../environment-agency-enforcement-and...
The EA do need to build a watertight legal case before launching a prosecution against all parties responsible, and I appreciate that this does take time. However, the community's patience is understandably wearing very thin. I will continue to press for both investigations - regulatory and criminal - to be concluded as soon as possible. We need to see accountability for what people have been through.
You can read the EA's full statement here: https://engageenvironmentagency.uk.engagementhq.com/lates...