Highfields Landfill Site, Walsall Road, Walsall, WS99AH
Overview
Highfields Landfill Site, Walsall Road, Walsall, WS99AH
This information page is now closed and will no longer be updated.
Latest News- Updated February 2021
Odour
Over the last couple of months we have seen an increase in reports of odour. We are sorry to hear about the situation you are experiencing. Highfield’s landfill site holds a permit that is issued and regulated by the Environment Agency, as such we take seriously any concerns expressed regarding the site.
We want to thank you for continuing to report odours to us and we want to reassure the local community that in response to complaints of odour we undertake odour checks in the area. This includes checks at different times of the day, for example early morning and in the evening. Recent odour checks were carried out on the 17/12/20 (evening), 14/1/21 (evening), 28/1/21 (early morning) & 3/2/21 (early morning). On the 17 December a fishy/chemical odour was detected at the junction of Boatmans Lane/ Coppice Lane and on the 28 January a landfill gas odour was detected on Boatmans Lane. No odours were detected on the 14 January or 3 February. All findings are passed to Enovert or other potential local sources of odour, as appropriate.
We will continue to complete odour checks and drive improvements on site.
Improving gas capture
We continue to press for improvements on the gas collection infrastructure, capping and engineering based on survey and telemetry data from the gas systems. Enovert are also carrying out regular gas surveys on site to identify areas requiring repair or improvement. We also continue to have regular meetings with Enovert to ensure all measures are being taken and within appropriate timescales.
Enovert North Limited has continued to make improvements on site, 10 new deep gas extraction wells have been installed across western flanks of site, including in recently tipped areas in cell 4. These wells are now connected to the gas extraction system. Further gas extraction wells are also planned for the current tipping area. Enovert intend to install a larger gas engine which will support the extraction system in capturing more landfill gas, this means less gas is lost to atmosphere. Unfortunately making improvements like drilling wells or replacing capping can generate odours by disturbing the tipped areas but these should be relatively short lived. We continue to work with the operator on ways to ensure gas capture works efficiently to extract landfill gas.
Capping
Enovert’s ongoing capping program to cap completed areas of the site is steadily progressing. The capping on site is key to future control of gas, which can sometimes be the cause of odour. In spring 2021 Enovert plan to continue with permanent capping on the Walsall Road side of site (North West corner of cell 3) and remove the area of plastic temporary capping installed in early 2020 which will be replaced with geosynthetic clay liner (GCL). These actions are all weather dependant and therefore could be delayed
Coronavirus: The Environment Agency response
We are working hard with Government and other emergency responders on protecting the public and the environment from the effects of Coronavirus. The Environment Agency remains fully operational and committed to adhering to all Government guidelines with the majority of our staff working from home. In accordance with the Government’s and our own internal guidance, we continue to carry out regulatory visits to sites that could cause serious environmental harm. With regard to Highfields Landfill we have been completing odour checks and undertaking our regulation remotely.
Site Details
We regulate the Environmental Permit held by Enovert North Ltd for Highfield South Landfill Facility. The permit contains conditions relating to site operations, which includes the waste types allowed, the handling of them and any relevant emissions standards and monitoring requirements.
A copy of the Environmental Permit for the site can be viewed here. This permit has been transferred to Enovert North Ltd.
Air Quality Monitoring from 12 March 2020 and 11 August 2020-
To enable us to further understand the potential impact on air quality from Highfields Landfill site, the Ambient Air Monitoring (AAM) team installed a Mobile Monitoring Facility (MMF) to the north of Highfields South Landfill Site on the 12 March 2020, in the car park of the Horse and Jockey pub in Walsall. Data was collected between 12 March 2020 and 11 August 2020, however the monitoring unit experienced two periods without power due to issues related to Covid-19 between 12 April 2020 - 12 May 2020 and 10 June 2020 - 17 June 2020, which resulted in a break in data collection. We were able to organise the reinstatement of the power supply to the monitor on both occasions and the monitoring equipment was checked by one of our technical specialists to ensure it continued to operate correctly and gather all the data needed.
The air monitoring reports are available to view below:
Highfields Landfill Walsall Full Air Quality Report
Highfields Landfill Walsall Summary Air Quality Report
Keeping local residents updated
We will only update you if there are any significant changes we need to make you aware of.
If you would like to provide feedback on how useful you have found this update, or be added to our mailing list to receive these updates in the future, please email:
Engagement_Westmids@environmentagency.gov.uk
You can view our previous community updates below:
February 2020 Community Update
March & April 2020 Community Update
September & October 2020 Community Update
February 2021 Community Update
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
We have produced a generic landfill FAQ document, which you can viewed here
Note: The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) Document detailed above is not an Environment Agency national guidance document. This FAQ document is a local area – Highfields Landfill Document.
Incident reporting
We want to hear from you if you have an environmental incident or concern to report, including any odour concerns.
To do this, call our free 24 hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60
Reporting odour incidents
More Information
When reporting odour incidents to us, we will ask you to assess the strength of the odour on a scale of 0 to 6. To help with your assessment, an explanation of this scale is as follows:
0 – No odour
1 – Very faint odour (need to inhale into the wind to smell anything)
2 – Faint odour (you can detect an odour when you inhale normally)
3 – Distinct odour (there is clearly an odour in the air as you leave your car or enter the area)
4 – Strong odour (a bearable odour but strong, you could stay in the area for some time)
5 – Very strong odour (unpleasantly strong, you will want to leave the area quickly)
6 – Extremely strong odour (likely to cause nausea and a strong need to remove yourself from the odour immediately)
No landfill will ever be completely odour free. However, the level and type of odour from such operations should not be causing offence. The permit conditions require an Environment Agency officer to make a judgement about whether an odour is offensive and we can only take enforcement action where it is deemed offensive and the operator is not using all appropriate measures.
Thank you for visiting our information page.
Audiences
- Businesses
- Members of the public
- Elected representatives, including MPs
- Local councils
- Environment Agency customers
- Environment Agency colleagues
Interests
- Business and industry
- Waste
- Permits
- Environmental permitting
- Installation
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