The Environment Agency has apologised over data coming from the monitoring equipment being underreported at Walleys Quarry.

Last week the EA admitted all three monitoring stations around Walleys Quarry have a technical issue which means the devices have been under reporting readings of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas levels.

During the meeting the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that the public and human health risk assessments that the agency have been providing for the past two years are invalid due to the lack of confidence in the data provided by the EA. Dr Ovnair Sepai, the principal toxicologist at UKHSA said: "We do not now have confidence in the historic data and therefore can not have confidence in the risk assessments we have made in the past.

"So we have to assume that the exposure has been around the long term health guidance values of two micrograms per metre cubed for a period of time. Longer than we expected."

A possible issue with the calibrator was first identified late August, once this happened another analyser was installed at Galingale. This data suggest that it is likely the original analysers were underreporting the levels of hydrogen sulphide.

Protesters gathered outside Newcastle fire station in June (LDRS).

A comparison of the accurate data from September to the under reported reading in August show a dramatic difference. The month average concentration of hydrogen sulphide was 1.7 micrograms per metre cubed compared to the August reading of 0.9 micrograms per metre cubed; for six per cent of the month of September emissions were above the World Health Organisation annoyance levels compared to just one per cent in previous month, the highest 24 hour mean was 5.4 per cent compared to 2.2 per cent in August.

The EA did caveat the data by saying that accurate comparisons are not possible as the data can be influenced by the weather and capping that has recently taken place. The EA have also developed a methodology into analysing the data and will look to get it peer reviewed, however they are unsure whether that will meet the confidence threshold to be useful.

Clare Dinnis, Environment Agency Area Director for the West Midlands said: "We absolutely recognise the distress, the concerns and for many of you the anger that you feel at this situation and we are sorry that this has happened. What we have been doing as soon as we confirmed there was an issue, the EA spoke to the UKHSA so they could understand the implications of this and make sure between us we were given the best possible information to health partners so they were able to give the best possible advice to you.

"I also want to acknowledge that for many of you in the community trust in the EA was already low and this will have absolutely dented confidence further. What we wanted to do and what we are endeavouring to do and will continue to do is to be as open with you as we possibly can about what we know and about what we are doing."

However Silverdale councillor, Rupert Adcock (Con) joined calls for an inquiry. He told EA officials: "I want to say how disappointing and frustrating this is. 

"Obviously with the EA being here to protect the residents of Silverdale this is a huge failure and there should be an inquiry into what happened here. My main concern is how bad this may have been at the peak in 2021."

However many residents were concerned over the issue. Resident Janice Long asked the EA: "We put out trust in our MP, the Environmental Agency to work on our behalf to keep us safe, to keep our children safe and to protect our health and time after time you are letting us down. Why on earth should we trust you again?"

In response Clare Dinnis said: "In the last three years the EA has been spending many, many times more money on regulating the site than we are funded to regulate the site because we know it is the right thing to do."

Campaigner Dr Mick Salt told the EA: "We do need to treat this now as a public health emergency because we've got a situation that has permanently damaged the health of children in the area, unfortunately. Whilst you're investigating the magnitude of this correction that is required I do ask you suspend the permit under a precautionary principle since your risk assessment is now none conservative."

Ms Dinnis also responded by saying that the legal tests in form of suspension or revocation of the permit have remained the same and the current situation doesn't take this into account.

Walley Quarry in a previous statement said: "We await further information from the EA to allow to us to better understand the full implications of this development. The statement made by the EA today does not detract from the work WQL has been undertaking which has seen significant reductions in reporting complaints attributed to the site and its operations."

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