The Environment
Agency has expressed disappointment following
the intention of Viridor Waste Management
to appeal an enforcement notice relating
to odour control at the Horton landfill
site in West Sussex.
The Environment Agency
has expressed disappointment following the
intention of Viridor Waste Management to
appeal an enforcement notice relating to
odour control at the Horton landfill site
in West Sussex.
The enforcement notice
was served on Viridor by the Environment
Agency on 26 August 2009. This action followed
months of odour complaints from members
of the public in relation to operations
at its Horton landfill site near Henfield.
Richard Hammond, Environment
Manager for the Environment Agency’s Solent
and South Downs Area, said: “We are shocked
and disappointed by this decision. It flies
in the face of all the evidence that adequate
odour controls were not in place during
the summer. The reality is that better site
management since we issued our notice has
significantly cut odour complaints. So we
are at a loss to understand why Viridor
is taking this action now.”
Notes to Editors
Section 3.4.1 of the Horton landfill permit
says that: Emissions from the activities
shall be free from odour at levels likely
to cause annoyance outside the site, as
perceived by an authorised officer of the
Environment Agency, unless the operator
has used appropriate measures to prevent
or where that is not practicable to minimise
the odour.
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Environment Agency honoured
for innovative Hampshire fish pass project
The Environment Agency
is celebrating its success after winning
a prestigious conservation award for a state-of-the-art
fish pass scheme in Hampshire.
The Environment Agency
is celebrating its success after winning
a prestigious conservation award for a state-of-the-art
fish pass scheme in Hampshire.
At the Wild Trout Trust
Conservation Awards ceremony, held at the
Savile Club in London, the Environment Agency
saw off competition from 11 other environmental
projects to win the distinguished Professional
Class category.
Designed and built by
the Environment Agency’s Solent and South
Downs Fisheries and Operations Delivery
teams using a majority of natural materials,
the innovative project at Botley Mill provides
15km of habitat to protected fish species
including sea trout, lamprey and European
eel populations. Since the construction
of the scheme, the area has also now become
home to a range of wildlife species including
otters and kingfishers.
A natural channel in
the River Hamble was created by opening
up the river, which had been obstructed
by operations at the mill for over 250 years,
to provide real benefits for water quality,
angling and conservation.
The techniques used
by the Environment Agency’s specialist teams
to create the 28 metre fish pass were not
used in UK before and the pioneering project
was completed at the end of February this
year.
Adrian Fewings, Environment
Agency Area Fisheries Technical Specialist,
said: “We are very proud to win the award
as this recognition shows that we are taking
positive action to ensure conservation in
Hampshire is being improved for present
and future generations.
“Many rivers have been
modified in the past at the expense of environmental
quality, but we are actively tackling these
challenges. Mills are a common cause of
obstruction, but now that many are inactive,
we can divert the right level and flow of
water around them to make sections of the
river suitable for migrating fish.
“This project at Botley
Mill is one such example of our work which
now benefits the waterway and the wildlife
that currently thrives within it.”
