Demand action on contaminated land in Wales

We should have the right to know if contaminated land is putting our health and nature at risk. Communities shouldn’t have to live with pollution they didn’t create – or pay the price for it.

Wales’s industrial past has left a harmful legacy, and it could be right on our doorsteps. Old mines, industrial sites and landfills have left behind long-lasting toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing PCBs and heavy metals like lead and arsenic. These pollutants can seep into our soil and water, threatening our health and harming wildlife. The companies who did this walked away with the profits decades ago – leaving communities to deal with the consequences.

Thousands of sites across Wales may be contaminated, yet we don’t have a clear picture of where they are or the risks they pose. We’re calling on the Welsh Government to:

• Launch an independent public inquiry into its scale and impact, including a review of existing legislation, regulations and statutory guidance.
• Create a public register of potentially contaminated sites.
• Secure funding from the UK government and work with all public authorities to make sure dangerous sites are cleaned up.

Sign the petition and demand action to clean up contaminated land in Wales.

• Why this matters

  Wales’s industrial past has left pollution behind from old mines, quarries, factories, industrial sites and landfill. Contaminated land can contain pollutants including PCBs, lead, arsenic, cadmium, oils, tars and solvents. These can seep into soil and water, harming wildlife and ecosystems, and have been linked to serious illnesses such as cancer.

  This is a much bigger problem than many people realise. Natural Resources Wales says more than 9,000 sites in Wales require inspection, with at least 414 considered high priority. Contamination can remain hidden underground for decades, while information about potentially contaminated sites is hard to access.

  The damage is already visible in Wales’s rivers. Abandoned metal mines release more than 500 tonnes of metals into Welsh rivers every year, affecting hundreds of miles of rivers and harming fish and invertebrates.

  Climate breakdown could make these risks worse. More frequent heavy rainfall and flooding can disturb contaminated land and spread more pollutants into rivers and other waterways.

  We need to understand the full scale of the problem, make information about the risks accessible and ensure dangerous sites are properly dealt with.