Environment Agency Newsletter

The Environment Agency asked the Parish Council to circulate the newsletter attached and copy-pasted below.

***** Environment Agency Newsletter *****

We have received some reports of odours in the South Milford area since the beginning of June and our officers have been investigating and have visited the permitted sites that we regulate in the area to ensure they are complying with their environmental obligations.

There are a number of activities in the local area that can give rise to odour. We regulate the activities that have environmental permits such as composting activities, anaerobic digestion and some types of land spreading. We will be conducting regular proactive monitoring of the permitted sites during the summer to ensure they continue to comply with their environmental obligations and to minimise the impact of odour on the local residents. Some of the activities do not need environmental permits such as certain farming practices. If the odour arises out of an activity that we do not regulate then we will pass details of the odour report to the relevant authority – likely to be Selby District Council.

We have been notified of some ongoing work at one of the permitted sites to remove potentially odorous material. This

is good news and should reduce the potential for off-site odour pollution going forward. However please be aware that the process of moving the material may cause odour; this should only be temporary while the work takes place. We are liaising with the operator to ensure that the work is carried out in compliance with its permit, and minimising odour so far as is practicable. So far progress has been positive.

What can you do?

The reports we receive to our incident hotline are important. Our incident service staff will log the specific details of pollution that you are experiencing. Please ensure you include as much information as possible in your report and that the report is timely as this will help us respond as efficiently as possible and give us the best chance of detecting the problem when we come to gather evidence.

Please ring our incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60. It is operational 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Although we are unable to attend in response to every call and cannot resolve nuisance immediately, reported incidents are one way in which we assess how a site is performing and whether improvements are working.