Are waste sites a complete waste?

 The beginning furore about contaminated waste sites are just beginning. Obviously, it has been known for years that such sites have been misused by unscrupulous business and also by an absence of proper supervision by local government agencies. Also possible rich opportunities for graft, meaning the ‘celebrated’ backhanders. As a matter of fact one only needs to come to the southern parts of Wales to find plenty of sites where rubbish was ditched by the tonnes. The Valleys are pockmarked. The small town of Tonyrefail situated in the Ely valley (Cwm Elai) has quite a number. By all accounts its Tynybryn Park is built on top of a waste dump, and next to the newly built A.4119 trunk road is a site that was originally the floodplain of the upper river Ely was heightened by unregulated waste dumping. Allowed by both the then Council and the company that took over from a food distributor. That company poisoned the land and the river by storing treated wooden pallets on it when the plentiful rain soaked the wood and the contaminated run-off killed all the wildlife and fish. The company left and the site has been empty since but the effluent seeping into the river can still be seen. No-one has ever been seen to check the site just a few Welsh Water people checking the sewage pipe that runs under the site somewhere. The Ely and Rhondda valleys have been used for a long time to deposit waste. They say it is all safe, but who today believes anything our governmental representatives, both elected or employed say? They would all just say it is the fault of us producing too much waste and our irresponsible ways to dispose of it. As it is they have a point. There are too many irresponsible citizens who do not care one way or another what they use, what they throw away and how they dispose of their rubbish. From time to time you will see even discarded settees appearing on a pavement or mattresses, suitably stained yellow of course. Whether they organised a pick-up by the local council which is chargeable, remains in question.

That all this has an effect on health is undeniable, chemicals harmful to life in one way or another abound. I have been wondering for some time why certain conditions have sprung up or have increased. Conditions that affect the brain seem to be all over, ADHD, COPD, you name it. Coupled with exhaust fumes from the enormous number of cars the Valleys are just right for people to retire to. Forget the Balearics, they don’t want you anyway. The local councils don’t like to be told they fail their citizens and their health. But it is undeniably true. We have heard all the excuses, no money etc. Yet year by year the councils employ yet more public servants, some of which need to go back to school. I am just waiting for some jobsworth to decide it’s OK to build on top of the waste dump. Well, you know, old people have to live somewhere, don’t they?