A landfill site which has been producing a potent smell that has plagued the lives of residents in recent months has missed a key deadline to try and fix the situation.
Residents in Brafferton, Newton Aycliffe and Darlington have complained for six months about the odours coming from the Aycliffe Quarry Landfill site, run by the Ashcourt Group.
In February, the Environment Agency (EA) issued an enforcement notice which set out deadlines the company must meet in order to make changes to try and stop the smell.
To try and rectify the problem, the firm was told to build more wells and pipes to collect noxious gases stop them impacting nearby villages by April 26.
But the Ashcourt Group says that due to rain in the past few months they were not able to access the necessary parts of the site.
The wells were built but they were not connected in time to meet the deadline.
Gary Wallace, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in the North East, said: "The enforcement notice we served in February outlining remedial action the site needed to take to bring it back into compliance included installing additional gas extraction wells.
"While the pipework for this had been installed they were not connected to the gas extraction system in time to meet the notice deadline, therefore it has not been complied with.
"The wells are now connected and are in the process of being turned on, which is something that must be done gradually. We expect this to be completed by the end of next week. This, together with previous work to cover problem areas of the site, should improve the odour issues.
"We understand how unpleasant the odours are for local residents. We will be inspecting the site to assess how effective this remedial work has been to control the gas emissions and will continue to monitor odours in the community."
The EA expect the gas extraction system to be fully functioning by mid-May. They believe that it "should improve" the issues residents have with the smell.
A spokesperson for the Ashcourt Group said: "All the works specified in the notice were completed by Thursday May 2 2024 and the gas extraction system is up and running.
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"We extracted the first gas from the wells on Friday May 3 2024.
"By the date in the notice, 26 April 2024, all the wells were in place, it is just that the connection overran by 6 days but this was simply due to the volume of rain which the site has experienced in the past few months, which meant that we could not physically get access to that area of the site.
"The Environment Agency (EA) are aware that the wells were physically in place on 26 April 2024, they came to the site on Monday 28 April and they physically inspected the wells."
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