SCOTTISH Water has been sent back to the drawing board to come up with a new way of getting rid of the infamous "Seafield stench".
The Evening News has learned that the utility firm which owns Seafield Sewage Works has been given until April to produce a bolstered package of improvements for the plant's long-standing odour problems or risk being taken to court by the council.
Water chiefs submitted a £19 million odour improvement plan to the council in April last year just two weeks before a major breakdown at the plant saw 100 million litres of sewage released into the Firth of Forth.
This spill triggered an independent review of the plant by the Water Research Council which stalled the council's assessment of the odour plan.
The independent review has now been completed, though not made public so far, and has highlighted a number of areas where the plant's infrastructure needs to be revamped.
Council chiefs want to see this reflected in the odour improvement plan. When the revised plan is submitted it will spell out the technical details on how to mitigate the stench, which has plagued locals for years, and will state whether the sewage tanks will be covered, something which residents have campaigned for.
Campaigners today warned that anything less than covering the sewage tanks will not be acceptable.
Gordon Greenhill, head of the council's community safety, said: "The audit identified things that may need to be done to the plant's infrastructure and we expect this will be reflected in the improvement plan. If we are unhappy with what Scottish Water come back with then we will go back to the courts."
Council officials served an abatement notice on Scottish Water and plant operator Stirling Water in September 2003, requiring them to take action to lessen the levels of odour nuisance.
When Scottish Water appealed the notice, the courts ordered the council and the water firm to work together to resolve the situation.
Rob Kirkwood, of Leith Links residents' association, said local people feared Scottish Water still planned to stop short of covering the sewage tanks, which residents believed is the only effective solution. He added: "
Leithers don't want to be stitched up with a cheap improvement plan that won't address any of the concerns."
Scottish Water's head of PFI, John Telfer, said: "Following discussions with City of Edinburgh Council, we feel now it is appropriate to resubmit the odour improvement plan for Seafield.
"The plan is currently being revised and will be resubmitted to the local authority in due course.
"We expect that the revised plan, coupled with improvements made in the past year and further work planned for implementation will deliver additional benefits."
