Environmental odour news

Foul smells from the clean-up of a former agricultural chemical factory in Cambridgeshire has led to protests from residents. The factory, established in Hauxton in the 1940s, produced pesticides and herbicides. Chemicals contaminated the ground and South Cambridgeshire District Council must clean it up before houses can be built there. Disturbing the chemicals has caused the smells, a spokesman said. "As the contaminated soils are dug they can release odours that had previously been trapped underground," he said. Local people told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and local news media saying they were not getting the answers they needed about the cause of the smells. Work on the contaminated ground will be completed in September 2010. The Environment Agency and South Cambridgeshire District Council have created dedicated web pages to provide information on the situation. Residents have been told the odour is unlikely to pose a health risk. However, a shopkeeper in t...

MORE than $1million will be spent in the next three months to reduce odour emissions at the Macarthur Resource Recovery Park in Narellan. WSN Environmental Solutions will work to reduce odour emissions by improving gas extraction from the landfill area. Last month the Camden Advertiser reported that residents in Narellan Vale, Mount Annan and Narellan had noticed the smell from the park had increased in the past nine months. A WSN spokeswoman said the company regretted that the odour performance had not met community expectations and action was being taken to urgently fix the problem, with the use of odour control .  ``The project involves installing 20 additional gas wells on the landfill area and will reduce odours emanating from the site by enabling the existing system to capture significantly more gas emitted from the landfilled material,'' she said. ``Work commenced on May 24 and will continue for approximately six weeks. While every preventative effort will be ma...

PAKENHAM’S sickening stink has returned with a vengeance. Cardinia Shire Council fielded ‘a handful’ of complaints about the stench last week, when some residents noted the smell around Bald Hill Road and the Henty Park estate. Business owner Michael Porter said the smell had returned after a brief hiatus. “It gets inside our factory and then we can’t get it out, the workers are sick of it and so am I. It seems to be in the mornings and evenings. It has been fairly good for a few months but this last fortnight it is back with a vengeance,” he said. Pakenham resident Nola Ellis said the stench had been blanketing Henty Park since Sunday afternoon. “It smells like compost to us, rotten,” she said. Fellow resident Joanne Miles described the smell as ‘mouldy old rubbish’ while Jacqui Haysom said it was more like ‘rotting bodies.’ Karen Muntz said it smelt like a cover-up. “It smells like garbage that’s had eucalyptus leaves mulched through it, like they are trying to cover th...

Residents living around the Avenues and Riverview Drive are not happy with the smell of sewage in the area that is so strong, it often prevents them from enjoying the outdoors. Arnprior council recently received letters from several residents in the area complaining about the “potent sewage odour” and “disgusting odour of sewage” in the neighbourhood. Several indicated “most days, the smell is so obnoxious we are unable to enjoy the outdoors.” “We’ve got Public Works and waterworks working on the issue,” explained Janet Collins, director of Public Works. “It is going to become quite a large procedure.” According to residents, the smell emanates from catch basins and not the pumping station and Collins agreed.

Someone! Anyone! Help! I was forced to endure a one-hour flight sitting next to a sharp-looking gentleman. He was dressed in crisp, clean clothes and polished shoes. He sported a fashionable watch and he had well-trimmed hair, clean nails, a ready smile, and kind eyes. He also STANK!!! Someone! Anyone! Please tell me what is going on! I regularly train emerging leaders on how to deliver unpleasant news or give performance feedback to their subordinates in a respectful way. One of the most popular, yet distressing exercises I use in developing this skill is a simulation of being sent by your colleagues to inform a team member that s/he has bad body odour! Very few people want to do it, and even fewer know how to do it well - even with guidance. Sometimes it is hard to tell from the squirming going on, whether it is the person giving the feedback who is most uncomfortable, or the poor person being told that they have been perfuming the air with ‘eau de putrid’ - the strong and lingerin...

The High Court has granted an order allowing for the immediate forced closure of that nation’s most complained about landfill. The Environmental Protection Agency had sought the order before the court to close down the licensed landfill near Naas in Co Kildare. Both locals and national lobby groups have long been seeking the closure of the offending landfill in Naas as it omits a particularly foul order and is thought to be an environmental hazard. The manager of the landfill said that if the High Court order was granted that his company would have to go into insolvency, but the judgement made clear that there was an overwhelming tide of opposition to the landfill as well as a foul odour which diffused throughout the surrounding area. Mr Justice Sean Ryan said the situation was extremely serious as there had been breaches of the law in operating the facility. He refused the company’s application to lift the injunction from last February and he granted a further injunction to the E...

Hundreds of people have held a protest rally near a cement factory in Perth's south, over concerns about corrosive dust and odour. The Member for Cockburn, Fran Logan says more than 50 complaints have been lodged with the Department of Environment and Protection this year. He says some people who live near the factory in Munster have had blood noses, headaches and breathing difficulties. He has called for immediate action against the operators, Cockburn Cement, and accused the Environment Minister Donna Faragher of sitting on her hands. Ms Faragher has rejected the claims. "I am aware of those concerns that have been raised by the community and that is why the department is putting forward and proposing a much stricter licence," she said. "They are also working with the Department of Health as well and that's the appropriate action."