At Airdrie Sheriff Court on Monday (10 October), the company pled guilty to five charges of failing to comply with the conditions of its former Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit, which was issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
SEPA first received public complaints on 14 June 2012, when officers detected offensive odours coming from the Deerdykes site, which comprised a composting facility until 2013 but has since moved to AD.
In response to continued public complaints of odour between June and November 2012, SEPA officers attended the site and identified that the outdoor composting of waste and the turning, screening and maturation of the compost was contributing to the offensive odours.
The officers also saw that equipment designed to treat odorous air was not performing adequately.
Scottish Horizons
The PCC permit was transferred from Scottish Water Horizons Ltd to Scottish Water in 2013 and according to SEPA ‘significant improvements’ have since been made to how the site operates to limit offensive odours.
A Scottish Horizons spokesman said: “Scottish Water and Scottish Water Horizons, which is a subsidiary of Scottish Water, take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and apologise for the odour issue and any inconvenience it caused.
“The composting facility at Deerdykes, which was the source of this issue, was closed in March 2013 after it was decided to focus on food waste recycling operations there.”
SEPA
Fiona Graham, SEPA’s reporting officer, said: “The regulations state very clearly that an operator must use the best available techniques for preventing or, where that is not practicable, reducing emissions from the site.
“We hope that this fine demonstrates to all companies that compliance is not an option.”
Fiona Graham, reporting officer, SEPA
She added: “The local communities in Condorrat, Cumbernauld, Mollinsburn and Moodiesburn and a neighbouring soft play area, were regularly and severely impacted by the activities of the Deerdykes site over a prolonged period of time. Although the offensiveness of any odour is subjective, there is a distinctive unpleasantness in being subjected to offensive odours at your home or business.
“Scottish Water Horizons Limited was given the opportunity to put further engineered measures in place to control odours, but insisted that management controls would ensure compliance rather than investing in infrastructure.
“We hope that this fine demonstrates to all companies that compliance is not an option. If operators do not meet the conditions of their permit, and do not take the required steps to ensure their site is compliant, we will not hesitate to recommend them for prosecution.”
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