YORKSHIRE WATER have claimed that they are once again “fully odour controlling operations” at the Saltend Waste Water Treatment Works. However, at almost precisely the same that the press release was received by the Hedon Blog yesterday, we were simultaneously still receiving reports of foul odours from the site.
The press release from Yorkshire Water’s Communication Manager, Dafydd Williams, refers to the official complaints received by the company which they say have dropped significantly over last weekend with only two being recorded, they “dropped to just two complaints over the weekend and in both cases they were complaints of odours as people drive-by the gates of the site.”
What is obvious, is that people are still not formally reporting complaints to Yorkshire Water on their Customer Helpline on 0845 1 24 24 24 and/or East Riding Council on 01482 396301.
Whilst people may feel cynical about reporting to Yorkshire Water and the Council, it’s important that they continue to do so. The lack of formal recorded complaints is evidence that things are improving!
Whilst urging people to formally report complaints, perhaps the onus is now on Yorkshire Water to be more pro-active and seek out the real volume of complaints on social media services such as Facebook and Twitter?
We would draw residents attention to the Yorkshire Water Group Facebook page and @YorkshireWater on Twitter using the hashtag #YWsmell – please ring to complain on the official telephone numbers, but let’s make sure that Yorkshire Water’s social media channels are alerted as well!
The official update from Yorkshire Water:
“I would like to update you on activities at our Hull Waste Water Treatment Works in connection with odours.
Following the fire in June in which one of our odour control units was damaged beyond repair, we have now reached the position where we are once again fully odour controlling operations at the site. We have installed two temporary odour control units to cover the role performed by the fire-damaged unit. The second temporary unit was fully operational by Thursday of last week. There was a short time-lag in complaints received whilst everything worked its way through the system but over the weekend complaints dropped significantly. Between Friday 12th July and last Friday (19th) we received 31 complaints about odour. This dropped to just two complaints over the weekend and in both cases they were complaints of odours as people drive-by the gates of the site.
We remain fully committed to doing everything we can to manage odours on our site including ferric dosing and using deodorising sprays. Our site team are working hard to ensure the odour problem continues to reduce and we plan to keep you updated on a weekly basis.”
Dafydd Williams
Stakeholder Engagement & PR14 Communications Manager
Yorkshire Water
Everybody stop paying water charge lets see what YW do if we did
Just heard from YW again with the following – “have discovered issues related to
our large treatment units at the north end of the site. This has reduced
our capacity to treat all incoming flows and is resulting in odours. We
have acted quickly to mitigate the effects of this problem and during today
(26 July 2013) we are working hard to ensure that things return back to
normal as soon as possible. We are hoping to see an improvement by the
early part of next week but we anticipate that the odour levels may
increase for a short time over the weekend”.
At least they are making us aware in advance, but, fact is whoever lives downwind this weekend will have a problem
As was said at Hedon Town Council public participation meeting last night when residents aired their ongoing concerns over the bad odours, we all need to get on the phone to
Yorkshire Water on their Customer Helpline on 0845 1 24 24 24 and/or East Riding Council on 01482 396301.
and make them aware just how upset we as local residents actually feel about this. If you don’t complain, they won’t know just how much anger there is out here.
Of course they didn’t plan the fire, but just as importantly, we didn’t plan to spend our precious summer evenings indoors with windows closed, did we???
We have some friends from Sutton who last week complained about a smell but it has got worse this week so they reported it, so on a lovely summers evening it only depends on which way the wind blows.
I would call on the council to appoint a leader for some direct action, blockades of the gates , placards , local media ….isnt it time we made them really understand how bad this is , or are we going to spend another 12 years listening to what are really pre rehearsed automated answers ,
Just posted on the Yorkshire Water Hull and Saltend News web page:
“As of last Thursday, we are now back to where we were prior to the fire in terms of our ability to control odours around the site.
However, whilst we have been working hard to get back to this position, a number of people have experienced odours from the site, and we’d like to apologise for this.
We are listening, and we remain fully committed to doing everything we can to manage odours on our site. By getting in touch with us, you’re helping us to pinpoint when any unacceptable odours have occurred, and take appropriate action to resolve any issues.
We continue to operate odour masking sprays around the site when appropriate, and a regular programme of ferric dosing is further helping us to control any odours around the plant.
Whilst there is always likely to be some odour owing to the operational nature of the site – it’s one of Europe’s biggest waste water facilities which treats up to 40 million gallons of waste water every day, including a complex mix of trade effluent – we’ll continue to work hard to manage and reduce any odours as much as possible.”
Those Tweeting complaints to @Yorkshirewater – it would be helpful if you could use the hashtag #YWsmell so that we can track the complaints – Thanks!