Agenda and minutes

Venue: South West Water Offices, Countess Wear

Contact: Jo Quinnell, Assistant Democratic Services Officer (Committees)  Telephone 01392 265197 or email  jo.quinnell@exeter.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

8.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mary Evans (Residents Representative).

9.

Minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2017 pdf icon PDF 104 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2017 were agreed.

10.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

Minute No. 5 – Any Other Business (Reed Walk)

 

Reference was made to responsibility for the pumping station at Reed Walk.  Nick Murch advised that two communications had been sent to the Service Lead Housing Assets at ECC, but no response had been received.  The pumping station was not on SWW records, but could meet the criteria to be adopted.  Simon Ruddy would chase a response from ECC and Nick Murch would investigate further.

 

Minute No. 5 – Any Other Business (Odour Management Plan)

 

Nigel Thomas-Childs and Nick Murch had met to discuss the Odour Management Plan (OMP) to bring it in line with OMPs across other sites in terms of the wording and how it is presented, which will satisfy the Environment Agency as regulators.  The OMP is only for waste functions on site, but it does need to acknowledge the water activities that can affect waste functions.

11.

Operational Update

Minutes:

Refurbishment of tank no. 1 had been completed eight weeks ago, taking approximately six weeks to complete.  This included the installation of sensors.  No complaints had been received during the work, although the drain down period was the most likely time to receive complaints.  It was anticipated that refurbishment to the second tank would commence within the next month.  Texts would be sent by the Proactive Team to advise residents when works were due to start.

 

A visit had been undertaken by SWW to a site which operated with covered tanks (a planning stipulation), but this had resulted in a number of operational issues as they are unable to observe inside the tanks to identify any problems at an early stage.

 

A planning application had been submitted by SWW to carry out UV work to the storm tanks.  This is a final effluent treatment for spills from storm tanks which will work to protect shellfish.

12.

Complaints pdf icon PDF 53 KB

Minutes:

The complaints report was noted.

 

In addition, further complaints had been received during May.

 

A residents representative referred to strong odours on 17, 20-22 March.  Efforts had been made to contact the Proactive Team at SWW, but contact could not be made and no feedback had been received. 

 

Residents representatives also referred to odours in recent evenings.  Particularly, 27 May and also in the period 17-19 May. The main SWW switchboard had been contacted in this instance, who had sent an engineer to inspect the pumping station only.

 

It was confirmed that no one was present on site after 6pm.  There are licensed hours for tankers to come onto site, and this did not include evenings.  Therefore, there was no obvious cause for the odour.

 

Nick Much offered to meet the residents representative that Friday evening to tour the site and surrounding area to try to identify the source of odour.

 

Enquiries would also be made with SecAnim (J L Thomas) as to whether a particular process was being carried out at that time that could have an effect on trade effluent.

 

In the meantime, residents were asked to keep a log of dates, times and wind direction when odours occur in the evenings.  Any actions could not be put in place unless the source is identified.

 

Nick Murch would investigate issues being experienced with contacting the Proactive Team.  It was noted that the main SWW number should be used out of hours, although recognised that they are likely to send an engineer to the nearest SWW asset only.

13.

Any other business

Minutes:

There was no other business.

14.

Date of next meeting

Minutes:

The date of the next meeting was agreed as Wednesday 13 September at 2.30pm at SWW Offices, Countess Wear.