Cost of dealing with PFAS problem sites ‘frightening’, says Environment Agency

Historic landfills make up the bulk of the 10,000 sites that could also be causing pollution issues, according to the agency’s report. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

The number of sites identified as potentially having been polluted with banned cancer-causing “forever chemicals” in England is on the rise, and the Environment Agency (EA) says it does not have the budget to deal with them.

A former RAF airfield in Cambridgeshire and a fire service college in the Cotswolds have joined a chemicals plant in Lancashire and a fire protection equipment supplier in North Yorkshire on the agency’s list of “problem sites” for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).