Two Moray communities are being warned that they could face periods of foul smells from local sewage works as essential maintenance is carried out.
Water treatment works in Buckie and Elgin are to be conducted as well as further along the coast at Veolia’s MacDuff works.
Work on each site is expected to take up to a week during which equipment designed to reduce odours escaping into the local environment will need to be put out of service.
A spokeswoman said: “Veolia, acting on behalf of Catchment and Scottish Water, are about to undertake essential maintenance of the odour treatment equipment on their Lossiemouth, Buckie and MacDuff sites as part of their annual capital investment plan.
“This work is scheduled to take approximately one week on each site and will commence at Lossiemouth on Monday, April 13 – with Buckie and Macduff commencing on April 20 and April 27 respectively.
“To prepare for this work it will be necessary to carry out preliminary inspection work to minimise downtime of the odour control equipment while the maintenance is carried out and allow for advance preparation and planning.
“We will complete this inspection work during the week commencing March 30. During the course of the inspections the Odour Control Units will be switched off for short periods of time to allow the work to be completed safely. This inspection work will be completed prior to the Easter holiday period.”