A Shropshire vicar has helped Welsh-born Hollywood actor Michael Sheen investigate alleged toxic waste dumps in a new two-part BBC documentary.
The Rev. Paul Cawthorn, who oversees churches in the Hudnall area, has spent years campaigning on environmental issues and investigating historic landfill sites.
He began researching the history of the former Stony Hill landfill site in Telford, where former chemical company Monsanto is known to have legally deposited waste during the mid-to-late 1980s.
“When we learned about the Monsanto chemical dump at Stony Hill, we next identified Sutton Walls in Herefordshire and then Cefnmar in north Wales,” he said.
“I then toured the valleys of south Wales and identified historically documented sites that required further testing,” he added.
Rev. Cawthorn said he has spent 20 years working to uncover the truth about potentially contaminated landfill sites.
He said dangerously high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were discovered at nine of the 10 sites featured in the BBC radio programme Buried. PCBs are toxic man-made chemicals that can persist in the environment.
“Some of the results are literally off scale and will have a huge impact on professional circles, assuming we can’t continue to ignore them now,” he said.
Details of Monsanto’s involvement at Stony Hill, which was managed by Shropshire County Council between 1985 and 1988, emerged through a recent Freedom of Information request.
Rev. Cawthorn has called on the current owner of the former landfill site, Telford and Wrekin Council, to commission a new full legal investigation into the site near Coalbrookdale.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has asked Telford and Wrekin Council to respond to Rev. Cawthorn’s repeated requests for an investigation.
A council spokesperson said: “Information about the active management plan for Stony Hill Landfill is available on the council’s website.”
Telford and Wrekin Council took over management of the former landfill in 1998. Its website states: “There is no evidence in the records received from Shropshire County Council that any toxic materials or waste were ever disposed of at Stony Hill Landfill.”
The council said it carries out regular inspections and has found no reason for concern.
The council website also says the Environment Agency completed a detailed assessment and review in 2008, concluding that “the site is not considered to cause harm to the local environment”.
The documentary examines Monsanto’s former operations, including chemical production at factories in Ruabon, near Newport and Chirk in south Wales, before waste regulations began to tighten in 1974.
Buried with Michael Sheen will air on BBC Two and BBC One Wales and stream on BBC iPlayer from Monday 17 August.
This news is Local Democracy Reporting Service. This service covers parliaments and other public service organisations.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk