Flood risk at decommissioned landfill sites.

Following my recent articles on old landfill sites and the threat posed by flooding to sites containing toxic waste, I have received this reply from Cllr Joe Otten’s pa. I have to say it has not eased my concerns, and if I were a neighbour of one of the tips listed below, I would be wanting greater reassurance from the Council but at least my letter has prompted them to do some calculations on the size of the problem. I will soon be publishing an article concerning the increase in flooding risk in Sheffield, so this problem is not going to go away.

Hello Graham,

Thank you for your email and for sharing the articles related to landfill sites in Sheffield. I understand your concerns and appreciate your patience.

Please find below the communications from July, which addressed the questions you raised in your previous email. This response should provide the answers you were looking for. I apologise that you did not receive a response to your previous correspondence. It appears there may have been an administrative error on our end and may have caused frustration or inconvenience.

“Good afternoon,

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns, and apologies for the delayed response. I am pleased to be able to provide the following information in response to your enquiries.

SCC manages only a small number of landfills within the SCC boundary. These sites are monitored and managed in line with Environmental Permits and involves reporting directly to the Environment Agency. Inspections and monitoring varies, but ranges from monthly – quarterly depending on the environmental conditions of the sites and will cover infrastructure, gas and leachate.

These are:

• Beighton – Monthly
• Douglas Road and Resolution Site – Monthly
• Normanton Springs – Quarterly
• High Green – Quarterly
• Backstock Road – Quarterly

When a licensed landfill reaches the end of its operational period, the license is then surrendered to the relevant regulatory authority (currently the Environment Agency, historically a Local Authority). As part of this, at the end of the permit, the landfill must be left in a way which ensures that the landfill materials do not pose a foreseeable potential future risk.

Historical landfills are considered as potential sources of contamination in our Contaminated Land Strategy – further information about statutory contaminated land inspections is available on our website: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/pollution-nuisance/contaminated-land. As and when sites become due for inspection, potential flood risks will be considered as part of the risk assessment, on a case by case basis.

Any environmental incidents should be reported to SCC and the Environment Agency and will be investigated as appropriate to ensure that any identified risks are appropriately addressed.

The datasets for flood risk and historical landfills belong to the Environment Agency, and are freely available to be downloaded. To assist with your enquiry, I have combined these datasets in some mapping software, and the following table details how the specified landfills (where the Environment Agency database indicates “Special” or “Liquid Sludge” waste) intersect with the Environment Agency flood data. All information is directly from the Environment Agency datasets and does not belong to SCC. I have attached a spreadsheet of data, which lists out the results of combining those datasets, and the working used to calculate the areas below.

Summary of landfill sites which intersect with mapped flood risk

Site name	Address	Area of landfill within flood risk area (m2)
Newton Chambers and Company Limited	Thorncliffe Works, Chapeltown, Sheffield	5225.53
Parkwood Road / Club Mill Road	Sheffield 3	3255.51
GR Stein Refractories Limited	Deepcar Works, Station Road, Deepcar, Near Stocksbridge, Yorkshire	1273.02
More Hall Tip	Deepcar, Sheffield, South Yorkshire	778.23
Butterthwaite Lane	Ecclesfield	304.12
Fox Hagg Farm	Land to the West of Lodge Lane, Rivelin, Sheffield	301.14
Ecclesfield Refuse Disposal Site	Ecclesfield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire	153.58
230 Sheffield Road	Tinsley, Sheffield	59.89
Grange Lane	Sheffield	24.58
Normanton Springs	Linley Lane, Sheffield	4.00
Beighton Road Tip	Woodhouse, Sheffield, South Yorkshire	0.11

Thank you for raising your concerns.”

If you require any further assistance or have additional questions, please let me know specifically what needs further clarification. We’re here to help and ensure all your concerns are addressed appropriately.

Kind regards,

Tareen

Tareen Ahmed

PA to Councillor Joe Otten

Chair of the Environmental Services and Regulation Policy Committee

Town Hall, 2^nd Floor,  Pinstone St, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield, S1 2HH