Environment: Sheffield's hidden legacy: A toxic threat beneath our feet?

Historic landfills, relics from a time before stringent environmental regulations, often lack safeguards to prevent pollutants from leaching into the environment. Many of the 20,000-odd former landfills are safe, but some could be sinister. The patchy historical records leave us in the dark about the contents buried in landfill sites.

The increasing threat of global heating and more frequent flooding amplifies this risk. We haven’t adequately considered the impact of changing weather patterns on old landfills and the potential for pollution they hold. “Forever chemicals” pose long-term threats to our health.

Dr Paul Brindley from the University of Sheffield compared flooding data with the map of historic landfills. He identified sites that have flooded since the turn of the century. This investigation focused on landfills closed before the mid-1990s environmental protections came into force and those containing potentially harmful waste.

I did some research and found 26 sites in Sheffield that are known to contain either “Special” waste or “Liquid Sludge” waste. Some of these are close to rivers, such as Chapeltown, Beighton and Deepcar. More details can be found on TelltheTruthSheffield.org.

The tragic case of Zane Gbangbola, a young boy whose death was caused by toxic chemicals from a flooded landfill, highlights the potential human cost of this hidden threat. The campaign for ‘Zane’s law’ – advocating better regulation and remediation of contaminated sites, needs our support.

The responsibility for managing contaminated land rests with local authorities. But austerity has damaged their ability to do this. Sites are often only investigated when a problem arises or when land is up for development, meaning potentially harmful leaching could be going undetected for years.

We must ensure that adequate resources are allocated to identify, monitor, and, where necessary, remediate any potentially hazardous sites. I have asked questions of our Councillors and the Environment Agency and will update you with any responses on TelltheTruthSheffield.org. Perhaps you could write too?