Welsh Government to reform environmental permitting laws to close 'regulatory gap'.

We call on the Welsh Government to reform environmental permitting laws to close a critical regulatory gap in landfill across Wales that is leaving communities unprotected from landfill emissions. Current permits fail to restrict noxious odours from breaching perimeters and polluting local communities. To bridge this gap, the Welsh Government must introduce new statutory legislation that establishes legally enforceable ambient air boundary limits for Hydrogen Sulphide. This petition addresses a developing public health situation by seeking concrete requirements for nationwide legislative reform. It presents critical, newly compiled 12-month air quality data demonstrating levels of pollution above 1 part per billion (ppb) for 36% of the time, and above 5 ppb for 11% of the time across the entire timeframe. This objective data refers to raw monitoring data obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Wrexham Council. When analysed objectively against World Health Organization (WHO) benchmarks—which recognize human odour detection at 0.4 to 0.5 ppb and a strict annoyance threshold at 5 ppb—this chronic, long-duration exposure satisfies the legal criteria for a Statutory Odour Nuisance under Part III, Section 79(1)(d) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA). This data is presented because there is a systemic legal loophole built into the EPA 1990. Operators escape liability by arguing they use Best Practicable Means (BPM) on-site within the narrow bounds of their corporate environmental permit. This creates a narrative where operators claim they legally meet technical compliance inside their gates while venting regular fumes into residential zones. Legislative reform from the Senedd is required to turn objective data into a mandatory trigger for enforceable action to move from abatements to closures.