The Environment Agency has released an update into their continuing efforts to identify the source of the foul smells wafting across Calne in recent weeks.
Yesterday, Wales and West Utilities were working on a gas leak at the Town Hall, which had been identified and reported as a separate issue by Cllr Pearce-Kearney, when he was in town with Wessex Water, investigating concerns about the mystery smell.
Some residents had said they noticed the smell was particularly bad near to the Town Hall, but it seems they were smelling a different bad smell to the rest of the town. Yesterday, the theory the gas leak was the source, was soon disputed by many who maintained the odour had a more poo-like smell than that of a gas leak.
A spokesperson for Calne Town Council told us : "It is very unlikely that the gas leak is the case of the pong.
"Wales and West Utilities have been working to replace the affected pipework."
Ryan Davies, Wales & West Utilities Gas Emergency Service Manager for Calne, said: "We have been working in the Cox’s Hill area of Calne to fix a small leak on a gas pipe running beside the road.
“Our engineers have worked as safely and as quickly as possible and have now fixed the leak.
“We are aware of reports of a strange smell in the area, and we can confirm that while we do not know the source of the smell, it is not related to our work or the mains gas network.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of local residents and road users while we carried out this essential repair.”
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency has released the following statement into their findings:
'The Environment Agency is aware of recent odour complaints made in the Calne and surrounding area, and we are working with Wiltshire Council to investigate the source of the issue. We appreciate your concerns and understand that you want the issues resolved as quickly as possible.
This briefing note provides details of the work the Environment Agency is doing to investigate the source of the odour that people are experiencing in the area.
We regulate a number of sites situated to the east of Calne in Compton Bassett, with activities including landfilling, materials recycling, composting and waste transfer, under environmental permits held by the operators. The permit conditions aim to minimise the impact on the local environment, including odour.
Where we identify that an operator is not complying with their permit, we use our regulatory powers to bring the site back into compliance.
possible, to keep it to a minimum. Please be assured that we will take action if we substantiate odour off-site and the operator is not using appropriate measures to minimise it.
Whether odours can be smelt off-site, and where they can be smelt, is often a result of local weather conditions. In certain conditions such as the settled weather pattens we are currently experiencing, odour will not be dispersed as quickly, and temperature inversions are likely to hold down odour plumes until the temperature rises.
Environment Agency officers have been carrying out odour monitoring in the residential areas of Calne. We have not been able to substantiate odour in the daytime monitoring we have carried out, but we have in our recent early morning monitoring. We believe the odour may be coming from regulated activity in Compton Bassett.
Following our investigations we have notified site operators, requiring them to investigate and confirm that the control measures they have in place are working effectively.
We are also undertaking our own site inspections - including fugitive emissions surveys using gas detection equipment - and where we identify uncontrolled emissions, we will require the operator to take action. In addition, we will continue to carry out off-site odour assessments to substantiate reports and assess whether the odour is coming from sites regulated by the Environment Agency.
Please use our 24hr incident hotline 0800 80 70 60 to report odour you believe to be from activities we regulate. Although we are unable to provide feedback for individual reports, the information you provide willbe used to inform our investigation and understand the scale of the impact.
We will communicate further updates by briefing note when we have information to share.'
