‘I kept smelling a horrible nasty smell’: the risks of England’s old dumping grounds | Waste

“I kept getting this awful, foul smell, like animal faeces, and I was wondering what it was,” says Jess Brown, from Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Brown’s mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and believes the smells make the condition worse. She’s also worried about her eight-year-old daughter, whose asthma got worse when the smell seeped in.

The odor was traced to the Jameson Road landfill, which was reopened in late 2023 by Transwaste Recycling & Aggregates Limited after previous owners Suez stopped accepting waste in 2017. The Environment Agency says reopening long-inactive landfills could release gases including hydrogen sulphide, which produces a “rotten egg” smell.

Determined to take action, Brown took action a Facebook group that quickly attracted more than 4,000 members Reporting headaches, nausea and breathing problems.

Thousands of odor complaints followed an implementation order in April 2024 to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissionsIt has been linked to health problems such as respiratory and eye irritation, as well as neurological and cardiovascular effects.

Following partial compliance, Transwaste has resumed felling at the site, which is located in an erosion and flood zone on the banks of the protected River Wyre. This led to a second executive order being issued six weeks after the first.

In March this year, the company’s license was suspended until new gas extraction infrastructure was established. This happened in April and topsoil is still being added to the site to reduce emissions. Environment Agency says pollutant levels generally remain within health limitshowever, odors continue to cause discomfort.

Retired doctor Barbara Kneale, who lives near the area, said: “Fleetwood is classed as a deprived area and has twice the national average for chronic respiratory diseases… People with diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive airways have flare-up symptoms. Children can’t play.”

Air quality is not the only problem. guard and Basin Research It found that waste legally dumped at Jameson Road landfill by AGC Chemicals until 2014 contained the potentially carcinogenic “forever chemical” perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has since been banned. The site also borders a former ICI landfill that is thought to have received PFOA waste for decades.

Water samples taken by Watershed near both landfills revealed that the sites were persistently leaking chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into the Wyre.

David Megson, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “These PFAS results are cause for concern due to concentrations of PFOA 5-10 times above environmental quality standards. This indicates that landfill sites contain PFAS and [they] they leak out.

“The landfills are located right next to the coast, so there is concern that the situation could worsen with rising sea levels.”

A person familiar with ICI’s chlorine-producing Hillhouse plant on the edge of Fleetwood in the 1970s, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: “Wastewater from different parts of Hillhouse was dumped into the ICI landfill. It was huge.

“It was a system of open, shallow lagoons. One was an acid lake. Some of the waste was liquid sludge and some white solids were getting in there… There was no lining at the landfill.”

Although a multi-agency investigation into AGC Chemicals found PFOA in nearby soil and warned against consuming local produce, the landfill itself is excluded from the investigation. The Environment Agency said it would take action if there was evidence not only that pollutants were present in dangerous amounts but that they could be spread in a harmful way.

However, the community wants the site to be closed as soon as possible despite the risk of a repeat of the same situation. The situation at Walleys Quarry landfill in Staffordshire. Here the operator went bankrupt following the decision to close and avoid costs, and management of the facility was left to the Environment Agency.

“I think the situation would be the same even if it closed at any time,” Brown says, referring to Transwaste’s lease expiring in 2027. “That will be left to the Environment Agency or taxpayers.” [to foot the bill for long-term management].

“It’s probably going to be a problem for years to come, but it’s better to shut it down now than to cause further damage to what’s already going to happen.”

According to Transwaste, the former hazardous landfill has been sealed and sealed with an impermeable clay layer, meaning that gas and leachate (the liquid that seeps through the waste) is completely contained and the only flow will be uncontaminated rainwater.

In the statement, “It is not correct to claim that there has been an odor for 18 months. We accept that odors that coincide with the necessary engineering works occur in the field from time to time.”

“Ongoing Environment Agency air quality monitoring research has concluded that emissions are largely negligible and air quality is good within WHO limits. [World Health Organisation] and UK regulatory safety standards.

Regarding the sampling that detected PFOA, Transwaste said the tests were carried out at a point regularly covered by the River Wyre, which is already known to have high levels of PFOA contamination as a legacy of the chemical industry, so “a PFOA reading was not unexpected”.

He added: “To put this in context, the test result showed 560 nanograms per liter (ng/l), whereas when tested in 2021 the River Wyre had levels of PFAS/PFOA measured at 12,100 ng/l and fish in the river contained 11,000 ng/l.”

Transwaste said the area had been used as residential lagoons for the chemical industry since the 1940s, then as a landfill, so “again, PFAS/PFOA readings in the vicinity would not be unexpected.”

NPL Group, which manages the former ICI landfill, declined to comment.

Wyre Borough Council said: “There are no plans to renew the lease held by Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates Ltd beyond its current life, which ends in March 2027. Transwaste is legally obliged to improve the site as part of the planning permission.”

Elsewhere, there are concerns that old landfills that predate pollution laws could also pollute groundwater, rivers and even drinking water.

Last year, levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been linked to immune, reproductive, nerve and endocrine damage, were found to be 1,000 times above UK norms at the former Commonside landfill site in Cheshire. PCBs have been polluting the area’s streams since the 1970s, and despite a fine imposed on the site owner in 1994, no cleanup has occurred. The council is currently re-evaluating the site.

“It’s a lie,” says local farmer Paul Jackson, who lives next door to the Commonside landfill, which was closed in the 1970s. “There are three-quarters of a million tonnes of chemicals, debris and waste there, and 50 different chemicals.” He added that mud regularly comes out of the tip, causing him to worry it could contaminate drinking water.

United Utilities, which manages water supplies in the north-west, said water quality remained good. He added: “Since becoming aware of concerns about PCBs [in the area]We did advanced tests and they were clear. “We will continue to perform these additional tests.”