Walley's Quarry Landfill: Odour Pollution

(asked on 22nd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to tackle the toxic fumes at Walley's Quarry.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 6th December 2021

The actions taken by the Environment Agency (EA) at Walleys Quarry have resulted in a significant reduction in the levels of hydrogen sulphide escaping the landfill since March 2021. Its strategy, set out in a revised plan published on 14 October 2021, is to contain, capture, and destroy the gas using a range of complex engineering solutions, with the aim of delivering a long-term solution to the issues caused by the decomposition of previously deposited waste.

Recent actions the EA has instructed the operator to take to tackle the issue include:

  • Additional Capping: In October, the area of the landfill that is permanently or temporarily capped increased to almost 70% through the application of a material called Posi-shell to the steep flanks of the site. Capping is important as it will contain more of the gas on the site.

  • Improving landfill gas management and collection: In October, 27 new gas collection wells were installed across the site to capture more of the gas and move it to the gas utilisation plant to be safely destroyed. There are now 82 gas collection wells across the site

  • Improving effectiveness of the gas utilisation plant: The EA instructed the operator to increase capacity to destroy hydrogen sulphide. The amount of gas captured and processed on site is now double the amount collected in December 2020.

The EA continues to monitor hydrogen sulphide levels off site using four mobile monitoring facilities stationed around Walleys Quarry. Three of these monitors showed monthly average concentrations below 2 µg/m3 (micro-grams per cubic metre) the long-term (lifetime) health-based guidance values.

I visited Walleys Quarry on 2 December 2021, and subsequently met with my honourable Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell), the Environment Agency and representatives from the local community, to further understand the situation and the work underway to resolve this issue.

Reticulating Splines