A 'toxic tour' through scenic Welsh countryside showed the kind of pollution sources many communities are exposed to - and the value of fighting back. Organised by Women's Environmental Network, the bus tour skirted the North Wales town of Wrexham. Sites visited included:

• an incinerator burning BSE infected cattle, built across the road from an abattoir, behind which is a beef farm. Despite lacking equipment to control emissions of ash and particles and exploding on the day an inspector visited, the incinerator was granted a licence to expand;¹

•a clinical waste incineration plant that was prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA) for routinely allowing a septic tank containing liquid waste such as blood and body fluids to overflow into a tributary of the River Dee;²

• a synthetic chemical factory built before planning controls, that dominates a small village and has a history of toxic gas escapes. After two bad incidents and concerted community action, the company was prosecuted and has now cleaned up its act, though its very presence and the highly toxic chemicals stored on site still pose a considerable hazard to neighbouring houses;³

• an aluminium recycling plant that put in damping equipment after an 18 month campaign by residents on the next-door housing estate who couldn't sleep because of constant low-level vibrations. Their campaign also led to requirements on low-level noise and vibrations being added to regulations;⁴

• a landfill waste site that has introduced a range of measures to protect nearby residents and countryside from smell and pollution after the 'bund' containing the site became unstable and started slipping into the River Dee.⁵

Janet Williams, WEN-Wales Co-ordinator, put together the itinerary with fellow-campaigners from Campaign for Rural Wales (CPRW) and Trefnu Cymedol Cymru (TCC). She said: "The reason for taking this tour is not to say Wrexham's a tip, it's not. We could actually take this tour in any county in Wales - and probably many other parts of the UK - and point out similar things.

"We want to show the different pressures for land-use, the way the planning system is used, how environmental controls can be breached or not enforced - and how communities can use these regulatory systems to protect themselves and their environments."

Also on the route were rural roads suffering heavy traffic and various examples of industrial plants sited worryingly close to housing or agricultural land.

One highlight was the former site of a rubber factory which is now one of the finest sites of biodiversity in the area after being left untouched for more than five years. "Nature does fight back and fights back very well," commented David Darlington, Chair of Wrexham CPRW.

The tour, attended by 40 people from the surrounding area and interested groups, was followed by workshops on environmental law (run by Environmental Law Foundation), the planning system (run by CPRW) and campaigning (run by WEN).

ends

For more information contact Liz Sutton, WEN Press & Information co-ordinator, on 020 7481 9004 or Janet Williams, WEN-Wales co-ordinator, on 01978 820819.

Notes to editors
1. Animal Waste Services Ltd. Wrexham CPRW has evidence that the plant lacks pollution abatement equipment. On the day it was visited by the Planning Inspector presiding over a Public Inquiry in 1995, one of the three burners exploded and the fire brigade was called. A licence was granted later that year.

2. Eurocare Environmental Services Ltd runs a clinical waste incinerator at Wrexham and several other waste facilities throughout the UK. It processes most of the clinical waste from Wales, the West and North East. In February 2003 at Chester Crown Court it was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £114,818 costs after earlier pleading guilty to 10 charges relating to the illegal storage and handling of clinical wastes at various sites in England and Wales. The prosecution was brought by the EA. A report in the April 2003 issue of 'Environment Action', published by the EA, says: "A surveillance operation at Eurocare's Wrexham clinical waste incinerator later revealed that liquid waste and washings from collecting areas were being flushed into a septic tank under the cover of darkness. The tank was found to overflow directly into the Red Wither Brook."

3. The Flexsys plant at Cefn Mawr, outside Wrexham, formerly operated by Monsanto, was built in the 1920s, before current-day planning controls. Some exhaust vents from the building are level with the bedroom windows of adjacent houses. Because the village is in a valley, a blanket of cold air sometimes traps in the toxic fumes, increasing the risk to residents and workers. After a serious pollution incident in 1994 and a similar one in 1995 Janet Williams and other affected villagers successfully completed legal action against the factory and were awarded damages in two out of court settlements. The COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards) restrictions have since been brought in, but they have effectively placed a girdle around the village, reducing the potential for development of new homes or community facilities

4. TCC worked with families on the Pentre Maelor housing estate, affected by noise and vibration from Hydro Aluminium Deeside Ltd's reprocessing plant. After an 18 month campaign, during which they employed consultants to measure the effects on different households and took their case - and a BBC camera crew - to the company boss in New York, the company finally installed damping equipment. Before the factory was built there were concerns about its proximity to homes, but the company successfully argued that it would have cost too much to build it further away. Chris Taylor, of TCC, said: "Aluminium recycling is the right thing to do from an environmental point of view but what is important is to make sure that all the controls and regulations are in place."

5. In October 2000 the protective bund holding in one of the sides of the Pen Y Bont landfill site at Cefn Mawr became unstable. The management company, Shanks Waste Solutions, rebuilt the bund and installed groundwater drainage, then monitored its stability weekly, then monthly, until earlier this year when it was satisfied it was stable. The Environment Agency was aware and checked the monitoring reports but did not take enforcement action. The company has also started capping filled parts of the site with plastic sheeting, to reduce smell and gas emissions and the site is operated to a higher standard. However residents still report incidences of odour on a regular basis.

6. WEN is a national membership charity that campaigns on environmental and health issues from a women's perspective. It educates, informs and empowers women and men who care about the environment.

7. WEN's health project is funded by the Community Fund. The day was also supported by the European Social Fund.