Acoustics case study

Waste transfer station

Background

Persimmon Homes Essex proposed the construction of 250 homes at Long Green in Cressing. The site is located next to a Waste Transfer Station (WTS). The local council were concerned that odours from the WTS would impact the residents of the development once complete. SRL was appointed to offer the relevant odour consultancy services to help address these concerns.

Challenge

The local council were concerned about odours from the WTS affecting future residents of the development given its close proximity. An odour assessment had been previously completed for development at this location to address this concern. The assessment concluded that a 70m buffer zone must be included in the site layout to avoid building houses in areas which may experience a significant odour impact. Part of our work on this project was to assess the effectiveness of this buffer zone.

Solution

We performed 6 sniff tests on non-consecutive days at 19 points across the site to assess the effectiveness of the no-build buffer zone. Some of these tests were done on days following the August Bank Holiday, which the local council considered would be worst-case as the WTS would likely be at capacity. The tests found there was likely to be a negligible odour impact at all locations outside of the no-build buffer zone, meaning the proposed no-build buffer zone is likely to be sufficient to mitigate residents’ exposure to odour.

We also reviewed the WTS’ relevant odour documents, liaised with the WTS operators to understand throughput on specific days and organise sniff testing around this, and responded to comments from the local authority.

No further odour issues were raised following our work and planning permission was granted shortly after.