More than 45,000 sites may be contaminated with toxic waste

MORE than 45,000 land sites in Wales may be contaminated with toxic waste, new research suggests.

- BRYANA FRANCIS and JONATHON HILL

The sites have not been properly inspected and pose a serious threat to people, water and wildlife.

Friends of the Earth Cymru, which conducted the research, is now calling for a public inquiry into the scale and impact of contaminated land in Wales.

The environmental pressure group said that such land could sit beneath homes, schools, parks and nature areas, but potential risks to human health and wildlife are unknown.

The environmental campaigners and its network of local activists reviewed publicly available data and submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all 22 Welsh councils, asking them to release their register of contaminated land.

Eighteen out of 22 councils responded to the FOI request. These responses, together with Friends of the Earth (FoE) Cymru’s own research, revealed 45,157 potentially contaminated sites.

Since not all councils responded, the true figure across Wales could be higher.

Only 82 sites in Wales have been formally classified as contaminated by local councils, including 27 in Caerphilly and 18 in Merthyr Tydfil.

FoE Cymru identified 10,000 sites in Powys, 6,563 in Carmarthenshire and 6,000 in Neath Port Talbot and said many local councils’ partial or entire failure to publish contaminated land information has left an “alarming postcode lottery” across Wales.