UPDATE: Statement from Tendring District Council – see below

Checks by the Environment Agency, Anglian Water and Tendring District Council’s environmental health officers have again failed to find the source of the gassy smell that has been reported in Brightlingsea over the last week.

Multiple reports of the smell – widely suspected by residents to be emanating from the Dunmow Group/Eastern Waste Disposal site in Morses Lane – were made to the EA this week.

However, the EA says in a statement that it has “not substantiated EWD as the source of the odours that are being reported”.

Following 32 complaints, mostly in the morning, to the EA on June 20, Essex Fire and Rescue visited the area. The EA says that detection equipment used by hazardous materials officers was unable to identify any odour.

According to the EA, the wind direction at the time made it “extremely unlikely that any odours in the town, or south of the [EWD] site at all, would be emanating from the site”.

On June 21, further reports of “an extremely strong gassy smell” up to a kilometre away from and upwind of the Morses Lane were made to the EA.

The EA visited the site to conduct odour monitoring in May. “There were no findings that changed the position from last September,” says the statement. “This site remains amongst the most visited in the whole of East Anglia.”

Unannounced

The unannounced visit by the EA’s area odour lead in 2022 lasted three-and-a-half hours. “During the visit no malodours were experienced and no potential causes of odour could be attributed to the reports we have received,” the EA states. Afterwards, the agency suggested that the smell might be coming from drains or pumping stations.

But following the latest reports, Anglian Water was called in by TDC’s environmental protection team. A pumping station near the Co-op store on Samsons Road was checked and found to be fault – and odour – free.

In a statement published by Brightlingsea Town Council, TDC says: “Unfortunately, at this time we do not know the source of the odour issue within Brightlingsea. Due to the irregular odour patterns, it makes it very difficult for us to identify the source and unfortunately will not be a quick process or resolution.”

It adds that before any action could be taken against a premises causing a “statutory nuisance”, “we must have sufficient evidence of the source and cause of the odour and this must be witnessed by Officers over a prolonged period of time”.

The TDC statement goes on: “We are continuing to look into the potential sources of the odour by contacting other industry and agricultural operations within the area. We will also be undertaking a number of odour monitoring visits over the next few weeks and will rely on information from the local residents.”

According to the EA, the site operators have not been recorded “as being non-compliant with their permit” or required “to carry out any actions or improvements”.

It continues: “For there to be a non-compliance we would have to substantiate odour leaving the site and it being generated from an activity covered by their environmental permit and the site not taking appropriate measures to control them at that time. We can never expect or require a waste site to be completely free from all impacts such as odour, noise or dust.”

Worrying

The Brightlingsea Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) commented: “It is worrying that in spite of 32 plus calls to the EA in recent days and many more in last year that visits to the area coincide with days when no obnoxious smells are present in the area.”

The group added: “A faster response time should be implemented or the EA’s and Tendring District Council’s credibility is at risk. Looking at wind direction and other theoretical analysis in a coastal area with its own microclimate will not cut it in the real world in which our residents live and suffer on a regular basis.”

The EA says that it will continue to monitor the site, but points out that it is “not our remit and we are not funded to, investigate other potential odour sources such as drainage, sewers, or industrial units without environmental permits”.

UPDATE. TDC Statement released on June 28 to Brightlingsea Town Council:

• Several officers from within the Environmental Protection Team have been undertaking sporadic monitoring visits to the area over the last several weeks, and this will continue for the next couple of weeks.  This has also included five days of two monitoring visits per day, and at least one visit on the other days.
• Officers have, on one occasion witnessed the odour within the area of Samsons Road; odour has been described as organic in nature, and similar to that of drain odour, rather than of decomposing organic materials.
• Environment Agency are satisfied there is no evidence to suggest the odours are emanating from the Dunmow Site near Morses Lane
• Anglian Water are satisfied with the odour and gas monitoring logs (which are routinely performed) of the drains serving the Dunmow site, and data shows there have been no noted exceedances.
• The Environmental Protection Team are responsible for potential Statutory Nuisances in relation to odour from industrial / commercial activities; however, we are not responsible for establishing the source in situations such as this current one.  Therefore, the current resourcing from the Environmental Protection Team is not something that would normally be provided over a sustained period of time, as such monitoring will continue for the next couple of weeks, when we will re-evaluate the resourcing being put into this complaint.
• Given the sporadic nature of the odour and the duration of which is not for prolonged periods of time and no apparent source, establishing a Statutory Nuisance, in line with the relevant legislation and our statutory obligations, is proving difficult.
• Other avenues for the source of the odour are being looked into; officers from within the Environmental Protection Team will follow these possible sources with a view to eliminating or confirming the source.
• Officers from Environmental Protection will be requesting assistance from Anglia Water in relation to odour monitoring of drains within the vicinity.
• Anglian Water have reported their pumping station located in Samsons Road is working efficiently, and no logs have shown exceedances of which may give rise to odour.

Hotline

The EA has a 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 807060. Callers may be asked to rate the odour on a scale from 1 to 6:

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 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) 

If an issue with drains is suspected, there is information on AW’s website on how to make a report.