THE CAMPAIGNER who submitted a petition calling for the Welsh Government to close down Hafod Landfill has given evidence to a Senedd Petitions Committee inquiry.
Johnstown resident Steve Gittins has been a leading voice in the campaign by residents who say their lives are blighted on a daily basis by the stench coming from the former quarry at Hafod – which has been used as a landfill site for 20 years.
Site operator Enovert and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) , which is responsible for enforcing the site’s environmental permit, have previously said they are working hard to ease the problems for residents while insisting the site is compliant with its license conditions.
But in front of the committee today, Mr Gittins refuted those claims.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Johnstown and it’s been an issue for 20 years,” he said.
“There is a daily stench from Hafod landfill. I was encouraged to submit the petition because nothing was getting done. I think the meetings with the council and NRW are ineffective so we felt the only way to deal with this was to bring it to the Senedd’s attention and hope that you can scrutinise them and get this place closed.
“The nuisance has got incrementally worse. In 2023 when Enovert had a warning from NRW, it hasn’t got any better since then. Pretty much month on month it does increase.
“I have an issue with the two senior officials from Enovert and NRW who claimed in their evidence they had no understanding of the correlation between rainfall and exacerbated emissions. It’s the basic science of landfill and is well documented globally.”
Carolyn Thomas MS, Chaired of the Senedd Petitions Committee, asked Mr Gittins about Enovert’s claim that complaints about the site had gone down since January this year.
“It is a fact that complaint fatigue happens,” he said. “We’ve been complaining for two decades and the situation has not got any better.
“I told NRW that this problem can happen eight, nine, 10 times a day. They said to me that I needed to report every one. What a burden that is on the residents of Johnstown.”
Mr Gittins was also asked by Luke Fletcher MS to explain how the odour problems have impacted people’s lives in Johnstown, Ruabon and neighbouring communities.
“The health risks have been publicised many times,” said Mr Gittins. “When you get it (hydrogen chloride) over one part per billion (ppb) in the air you get throat irritation, eye irritation, sleeping problems.
“When you get to five parts per billion then it causes massive problems and considerable health risks.
He argued that evidence previously presented to the committee by Enovert was misleading as it compressed the time period measured, meaning the graph presented more clearly showed when hydrogen chloride emissions were below the World Health Organisation nuisance threshold than when they were above.
Mr Gittins added that data from community monitoring equipment showed between 63% and 66% of measurements had hydrogen Chloride levels at 1ppb while between 34% and 39% had levels over 5ppb.
Rhys ab Owen MS said “You’ve seen I questioned Enovert and NRW about the accessibility of the evidence – I think you’ve touched upon the idea of Enovert ‘marking their own homework’.
“What would you like to happen. Who would you like to monitor the site?”
“I’d like to see an independent body that specialises in this field review of these figures,” said Mr Gittins. “With their own figures they’re not compliant.”
Asked by Joel James MS whether there was any action – other than closing Hafod landfill down – that residents would consider, Mr Gittins response was clear.
“On behalf of the residents I know how strong the feeling is across the community,” he said. “They won’t accept anything other than the site being closed. It hasn’t been managed efficiently for 20 years.
“Twenty years is enough – and we’ve got another 35 years license on that site. My children and grandchildren are going to suffer from this place.
“Why should we put up with that?”
The Senedd Petitions Committee will now review all the evidence provided and draft a report.
