Seafield

Scottish Water and Veolia Water UK, the operators of the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works will continue to monitor the facility for any potential odour issues following the completion of the multi-million pounds Odour Improvement Plan.

Construction began in autumn 2009 and was completed in summer 2011. The works is undergoing a strict monitoring regime which is being carried out by a number of environmental regulators.

We have kept the local community and its elected representatives fully informed, and met regularly during the construction programme. We have continued to keep them updated.

The Odour Improvement project involved the installation of two new Odour Treatment Units, ductwork and support bridges, new coarse and fine inlet screens, channel covers, weir covers at Primary Settlement Tanks and improvements to the detritors which are now capable of removing fine particles of grit - reducing the risk of blockage and potential odour generation.

The plant is capable of producing up to 2300 kilowatts of sustainable electricity. Offset, this is enough to power up to 600 homes. This is produced by gas powered generators which use the gas produced in the 6 digesters on site to generate this ‘green’ power.

The facility is managed on our behalf by Veolia Water UK, one of the world’s leading environmental services providers, under a 30 year Private Finance Initiative contract which has been running since 1998.

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As part of our ongoing commitment to keep you updated with any changes of note at Seafield WwTW, I’d like to advise you of an additional process that will be taking place over the next few weeks.  Through daily monitoring of the inflow conditions to Seafield, Veolia Water have measured a progressive but marked increase in loading and hence sludge production.  This increase has reached a stage where it has become necessary, in order to maintain effluent and odour performance, to operate an additional mobile centrifuge to reduce the volume of sludge on site.  The operational decision to run the centrifuge has been taken based on the need to remove sufficient sludge from the primary tanks in order to prevent septic conditions.  The centrifuge will be manned and operated 24 hours a day for at least three weeks in order to process sufficient sludge and ensure that plant has returned to normal operation.  Investigations to identify the cause of the increased loading have commenced, with Scottish Water and Veolia working together to review a range of potential sources.

In order to mitigate potential odours, the centrifuge is being placed at the entrance to the main pumping station, thereby minimising the retention time of the processed sludge.  The treatment liquors from the centrifuge will be returned to that same pumping station which is odour controlled through carbon filters.  The liquors are subsequently returned to the covered and odour controlled inlet works.  The cake that is generated will be stored in covered skips and removed from site at the earliest opportunity and it is expected to be able to remove cake from site 7 days per week.  As an additional odour management measure Veolia have designated a skip handling area within the site, positioned well away from the Seafield Road/Marine Esplanade boundary.

Both SEPA and City of Edinburgh Council have been advised of this temporary change to operations.  The operation will be monitored on a day by day basis and further updates will be issued if required.  The long term weather forecast (http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Leith/long.html) will continue to be monitored and mitigation measures will remain under review.