The Nantygwyddon Tip is situated on the top of a mountain, in close proximity
to several highly poplulated villages in the Rhondda Valley.
The tip was originally owned and run by the now defunct Rhondda Borough
Council.
Over two years ago things began to go wrong when villages near the tip were
affected by swarms of flies during the summer months.
This was followed by strong obnoxious odour and infestation by gulls.
Reports began to appear of children being born with serious abnoramilities,
unacceptable numbers of miscarriages , an abortions having to be carried out
because of chromosome abnoramilites.
Numerous marches and demonstratios took place at the Tip entrance, the Council
Offices, the Environment Agency and the Welsh Office
Picketing took place at the tip entrance which effectively closed the tip for
several months. The picketing ceased and the tip re-opened when the council
allowed the Company to talke seven local residents to the High Court (October
1997) where they were threatened with the loss of their homes if they did not
agree to cease picketing and pay part of the legal costs of the Company.
This only served to strenghten the Action and drum up more support from
the community.
As a result of this action the Environment Agency instructed the Company to
commission a report into the management and problems connected with the site.
The resulting report from C.L.Associates (April 1997) highlighted many areas
of concern which had been expressed previously by members of the community.
At the same time the Council began to take the complaints semi-seriously and
they commissioned an Epidemiological Study into the health of the residents
living near the site. Areas of grave concern were identified in this study
(October 1997) as a result of which the Bro Taf Area Health Authority agreed
to set up clinics in the locality in order to collect data which could link
the reported health problems to the pollution emanating from the tip.
Approximately 60 residents have been awarded legal aid to sue the Company for
nuisance and damage to health and recently one resident has been given a
reduction in his Council Tax Banding because of the nuisance factor of the
odours. Hundreds more have now applied for the same.
At the same time as the Epidemiological study was being carried out, the
Environment Agency commissioned Entec to carry out a study on the tip.
The report took months to be completed (February 1998). The report did not
link the tip but it did highlight major problems on the site,
many of which are connected to the large amounts of calcuium sulphate filter
cake which had been deposited on the site for years and the resulting gas
problems of Hydrogen Sulphide.
Residents living in an area plagued by the obnoxious gassy odours had long complained about the presnece of quantities of dust in their homes. Hovever wen they discovered substantial mounts of this dust in their attics, it was decided to have the dust analysed. This was carried out by the Greenpeace laboratirues and the results have shown large amounts of heavy metals present in the dust. The Council have now taken their own samples for analysis and we can only await the outcome.