A south Wales council allowed liquid contaminated with hazardous chemical waste to spill from a landfill site onto a public road, regulators have found. Caerphilly County Borough Council (CCBC) manages the Ty Llwyd quarry in Ynysddu, just north of Cardiff, where toxic waste from chemical manufacturer Monsanto, including carcinogenic PCBs, was dumped in the 1960s and 1970s.
In early January, heavy rains caused contaminated liquid, known as leachate, to spill from the quarry and flow through a woodland used by children and dog walkers onto a public road. After the initial reports, CCBC denied that any of the water leaving the woodland was contaminated, saying it treated the leachate in an aeration chamber, leaving “just normal surface water run-off”.
Several days later, reporters from the PA news agency found this chamber to be overflowing with brown foamy liquid that gave off a malodourous smell. Samples taken by independent councillors Jan Jones and Janine Reed from the chamber and analysed by Greenpeace scientists found the liquid to be heavily contaminated with dangerous chemicals, including PCBs. Read more about that here.
