Plaid Cymru councillor Steve Skivens is calling for every piece of contaminated land in Caerphilly County to be risk assessed by the local authority.
The Penyrheol councillor made his appeal in the wake of a report by Friends of the Earth Cymru. It highlighted the fact that there were 27 contaminated sites had been identified in the county borough with PCBs – Polychlorinated Biphenyls chemicals – at the Penrhos, Caerphilly and Ty Llwyd, Ynysddu, quarries.
Councillor Steve Skivens, who represents Penyrheol where the Penrhos site is, said: “Friends of The Earth Cymru has recently indicated that they believe that there are some 45,000 sites in Wales containing contamination.
“Plaid Cymru is calling for local authorities, such as Caerphilly, to carry out risk assessments for these sites to indicate clearly if they are contaminated and the risk levels to human and animal welfare and health. The most contaminated should be tackled first.
“We need the Welsh Government to ensure public bodies do their duty, and polluters are also brought to book,” added Steve is a member of the UK Landfills Campaign.
Councillor Steve Skivens added: “Remediation of high-risk sites can be organised to ensure safety of our communities and environment. The work on dealing with coal and mining waste tips shows the way forward for tackling contaminated land.
“We lag behind in Wales from other countries in bringing polluters to account and that needs to change. Ignorance is no defence and only compounds the issue.”