Thousands of sites in Wales may hold toxic waste, Campaigners Say

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 an environmental crisis.

- Bethan McKernan

Despite Wales's extensive industrial history, today's publication found that because of a lack of funding and oversight, only 82 sites across the country have ever been fully examined and classified as contaminated, meaning that the actual scale of the threat is unknown.

Former industrial areas, landfills and quarries can contain contaminants such as heavy metals, oil, tar, solvents, gases and radioactive substances.

The 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.

In some places the impact of Wales's industrial waste legacy 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.