MPs call for urgent testing of communities living near contaminated land in Wales

Mark Mansfield

MPs have called for urgent testing of contaminated former industrial sites across Wales and people living nearby amid concerns about potential risks to their health.

The Welsh Affairs Committee has written to Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock calling for the UK and Welsh governments to establish a coordinated approach to testing communities affected by Wales’ industrial legacy.

The committee said contamination in former industrial areas had been “neglected for too long” and described government work on testing, remediation and support for communities as “siloed, underfunded and incomplete”.

Its intervention follows an evidence session last week involving Welsh actor Michael Sheen and investigative journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby, whose BBC documentary Buried investigated potentially harmful contamination in Wales and England.

The committee is calling for testing at former industrial sites and among people living nearby to establish the extent of any risk to human health.

It also wants ministers to consider testing food produced in potentially contaminated areas and provide clearer information to communities about the risks they may face.

The latest intervention follows an earlier letter sent to Mr Kinnock in July after MPs heard evidence about pollution from abandoned metal mines.

In that letter, committee chair Ruth Jones warned there had been a failure across the UK to fully establish where contamination existed in soil and rivers, leaving people in Wales without a clear understanding of the potential risks to their health.

The committee asked whether the UK Government would establish a coordinated four-nation approach to testing children living in areas with a history of industry such as metal mining, working with the Welsh Government on a standardised system.

MPs also raised concerns about the amount of food being tested for heavy metals.

Evidence presented to the committee suggested that of around 33,000 food products, only about 450 are tested for metals including lead each year.

Witnesses had raised concerns about contamination being found in cattle, eggs and other produce, while the committee noted the World Health Organisation’s position that there is no level of exposure to lead known to be without harmful effects.

The committee has also called for better communication with people living near potentially contaminated sites, saying technical maps and other publicly available information did not necessarily allow residents to understand the risks or how to protect themselves.

Ms Jones said: “For far too long, communities living near contaminated land have been neglected when it comes to testing, resulting in real fears about the potential harmful environmental and health impacts.

“The UK Government and the Welsh Government must work together towards a properly coordinated approach to testing.

“Only then will we be able to begin to understand the true impact of contaminated land in our former industrial heartlands.”

Evidence

The committee’s latest call follows evidence from Sheen, Taylor and Ashby about their investigation into contaminated sites.

They singled out the Llwyneinion Acid Tar Lagoon near Wrexham, which Ashby described as a “shame on Britain” and an example of the failure of the principle that those responsible for pollution should pay for cleaning it up.

Ashby told MPs there were believed to be between 10,000 and 45,000 potentially contaminated sites across Wales, while only 80 had been formally classified as contaminated.

The committee heard that identifying and pursuing those responsible can be difficult because some pollution dates back decades and companies have since closed or been restructured.

The national contaminated land remediation fund was scrapped in 2014, leaving councils facing potentially huge costs.

The estimated cost of cleaning up Llwyneinion alone has previously been put at around £40m.

Independent testing

Sheen argued that testing should be carried out independently rather than leaving local authorities responsible for assessing sites which they could subsequently face having to clean up.

He told MPs: “We have to take it off the councils, I think the testing has to be done completely independently and I think there has to be a fund that is beyond the council at a national level.”

The Welsh Government has previously said addressing contaminated land is an important issue and that it wants to strengthen the “polluter pays” principle.

It has also said it is pressing the UK Treasury for funding to deal with the legacy of Wales’ industrial past, including contaminated land and coal tips.

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