At least 45,000 sites in Wales could be contaminated with toxic waste, study says
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At least 45,000 sites in Wales could be contaminated with toxic waste, study says
"Research from Friends of the Earth Cymru has found that at least 45,000 sites across Wales could be contaminated with toxic waste but have never been adequately inspected, leaving communities and wildlife vulnerable to a potential environmental crisis. Despite Wales's extensive industrial history, Tuesday's publication found that due to a lack of funding and oversight, only 82 sites across the country have ever been fully examined and classified as contaminated, meaning the actual scale of the threat is unknown."
"The environmental campaigners submitted freedom of information requests to all 22 Welsh councils and reviewed publicly available data. Only 11 councils provided full responses, yet they revealed 45,157 potentially contaminated sites, suggesting the true figure could be far higher. While most of Wales's industrial waste legacy has never been investigated, in some places its impact is clear to see."
"In Ynysddu, a village in the Sirhowy valley in south Wales, waste from companies was dumped in the former Ty Llwyd quarry on the mountain above the village in the 1960s and 70s. Residents have warned for years that after heavy rainfall, foul-smelling brown and foamy liquid seeps from the quarry and downhill into the surrounding woods, council-owned land that was used by children and dogwalkers until it was recently fenced off."
"In 2023, testing by Dr David Megson, an environmental chemist from Manchester Metropolitan University, found unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Ynysddu. PCBs are forever chemicals that accumulate in the food chain and can cause liver damage and increased cancer risk in humans. All testing commissioned by Caerphilly county borough council to date has indicated zero level of PCBs, and the site is not legally defined as contaminated land."
At least 45,000 sites across Wales could be contaminated with industrial waste while only 82 sites have been fully examined and classified as contaminated. Limited funding and oversight have left most of the industrial waste legacy uninvestigated. Freedom of information requests to 22 councils produced full responses from 11 councils, revealing 45,157 potentially contaminated sites, indicating the true figure could be higher. Contaminants include heavy metals, oil, tar, solvents, gases and radioactive substances. Local impacts are visible in places such as Ynysddu, where testing found unsafe levels of PCBs while council-commissioned tests reported zero and the site is not legally defined as contaminated land.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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