Put a lid on it!

Friday 01 December 2017

Jersey's politicians are to be asked to spend around £4.5million covering the sewage treatment tanks at Bellozanne, in a bid to cut the nasty smells in the area.

The Infrastructure Department (DfI) argues covering the tanks at the new £75 million Bellozanne sewage treatment works is unnecessary, and not a good use of public money, saying that it would only stop an additional three properties from experiencing ‘nuisance’ smells.

Last month, the DfI's planning application for the new plant was rejected by the Planning Committee after property and business owners - some of them organised under the name 'Bellozanne Action Group' - raised concerns about the nasty niffs. While DfI proposed considering covering the tanks after the plant is built, the Committee refused to give the green light to the application.

The DfI said they would formally appeal Planning’s decision on the grounds that it has an obligation to safeguard public finances and achieve value for money under the Public Finances Law. 

Deputy Eddie Noel, Minister for Infrastructure said at the time: “Firstly, odours would be significantly reduced with the new plant compared to those currently experienced. Secondly, why would it be logical to spend £4.1m of public money if, as the Environmental Impact Assessment indicates, it was unnecessary? We should only consider spending that sizeable amount of money, which could otherwise be spent on priority areas such as health and education, if indeed there is a problem. We will only know that once the STW is built and tested.” 

Video: Plans for the new waste plant.

Now Deputy Andrew Lewis, who is one of the local Deputies, has decided to step into the dispute. He is asking his fellow States Members to back a proposition allowing the Treasury Minister to allocate up to £4.5 million to the DfI "to ensure that full attention is given within the proposed new Sewage Treatment Works (STW) project to odour mitigation, include the covering of the primary settlement tanks." 

While the current budget does not allow for the covering of the Primary settlement tanks (PST), the Deputy says his proposition will ensure it can be done by using funds from contingencies. 

As part of his proposition, Deputy Lewis also wants Deputy Noel to commission an independent study on the impact of emissions from the plant on local residents and businesses and to undertake "continuous monitoring of odour emissions" in conjunction with Environmental Health.

Pictured: Deputy Lewis wants the Treasury Minister to allocate £4.5million to DfI to ensure the tanks are covered.

The report accompanying the proposition states that the primary settlement tanks are the largest single contributor to odour emissions and account for a total of 60% of all emissions.

Deputy Lewis commented: "The smell at Bellozanne has blighted the lives of residents in the First Tower area for decades. Despite petitions constant lobbying and an approved propostion from the States in 2006 to commit to a solution, little improvement has been achieved." 

He added: “The building of the new plant is a once in a generation opportunity to resolve this matter once and for all. DfI should be implementing every possible bit of technology to mitigate the smell from the new plant. (...) With the covering of PSTs, this not only mitigates the odour zone by half, it ensures hundreds of homes, two schools and a hotel are certain to be removed from the odour zone, surely, this is exactly the type of improvement expected of a modern facility rebuild."

While the Minister for the Environment should make a decision on DfI's appeal towards the end of December, Deputy Lewis's proposition will be debated next year.