The number of sites in England identified as potentially contaminated with banned cancer-causing “forever chemicals” is increasing, and the Environment Agency (EA) says it does not have the budget to tackle them.
A former RAF airfield in Cambridgeshire and a fire academy in the Cotswolds have joined a chemical factory in Lancashire and a fire protection equipment supplier in North Yorkshire on the agency’s list of “problem locations” for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
A total of more than 10,000 sites in England could be contaminated with PFAS – substances that have been linked to a wide range of diseases including cancer and which do not break down in the environment, according to a report commissioned by the agency. giving them the nickname “forever chemicals”. But so far the agency is only taking action in four locations.
Banned PFAS have been widely used in firefighting foam, which could explain why the area around the former RAF base, now the Fire Service College at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, is on the agency’s list of “problem locations”. Increased concentrations of PFAS in surface water are being investigated by the EA.
Also on the list is Angus Fire, a fire protection equipment supplier in Bentham, North Yorkshire, where high levels of PFAS have been found and where the company says this happened. testing for a number of years. Angus has said: “We no longer manufacture or test PFAS-containing foam products at Bentham or anywhere else in the world.”
The EA is also inspecting the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, which was formerly an RAF base, at the request of South Cambridgeshire District Council. In 2022, the Guardian revealed that drinking water in the area was contaminated with PFAS.
A spokesperson for the museum said that no prohibited substances were consciously used anywhere on the estate. “We have been tested and audited by Cambridge Environmental Health Services and our firefighting team no longer trains with foam as we are aware of the sensitivity of the aquifer located beneath IWM Duxford. We continue to support the relevant water companies and agencies in monitoring water supplies in the vicinity of the Duxford site.”
Investigations are also underway at AGC Chemicals’ Thornton-Cleveleys site in Lancashire, after work by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations revealed very high levels of a banned PFAS called PFOA in waste water entering the protected River Wyre. AGC has stated that it “does not use or produce PFOA… any PFOA in the wastewater may be from historical uses at the site.”
Correspondence between the EA and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), seen by the Guardian and Watershed, reveals the agency’s “fear” that it would not be able to fund the survey and risk assessment work at the four sites.
In an email sent to Defra in May, the agency said that this year there is “funding pressure to undertake all the inspection work we have been asked to do” regarding “PFAS and the two new potential requests for location inspection we accepted for AGC. and Duxford”.
“These are the first requests we have had in many years and the very high costs of analyzing PFAS are starting to become daunting,” the agency wrote. The estimate of the cost of carrying out investigations into four PFAS problem sites has just been put at between £1.8 million and £2.7 million. We have no plans to spend anything like that, certainly not immediately, but it does put into context the total value of our contaminated land budget of £300,000 plus £200,000 (the chemicals funding stream).”
These figures do not include estimates for clean-up of the sites, which would only accrue to the EA if the polluters cannot be found and current landowners are not held liable.
Dr. Shubhi Sharma of the charity Chem Trust said: “It is entirely right that the Environment Agency is highlighting the lack of resources and the enormous costs of monitoring for PFAS at perhaps thousands of PFAS contaminated sites across England. These costs don’t even take into account the further costs of removing these forever chemicals from our soil and water.
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“The Environmental Act sets out the importance of the polluter pays principle. The chemical industry in England should step up and contribute financially to the enormous costs facing society and nature. We must also ensure that we no longer add to this pollution burden, and the UK Government must take urgent action to ban these chemicals at source.”
Historic landfills make up the largest share of the 10,000 sites that could also cause pollution, according to the agency’s report, followed by wastewater treatment plants, heavy industry, and fire stations and airports where PFAS-laden firefighting foam was also widely used.
Unused foam containing banned PFAS is being stockpiled across the country. According to previous government data from the Guardian and Watershed, the EA recorded more than 800 tonnes of PFOA and PFOS-containing foam stored in England.
A spokesperson for Defra said the government has “already begun investigating whether PFAS should be restricted in firefighting foam and will provide further details in due course”, adding that it “has recently announced a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to meet our legal obligations where to make”. binding targets to save nature and this includes how best to manage chemicals, including the risks of PFAS.”
An EA spokesperson said the agency is carrying out a “multi-year program to better understand the sources of PFAS pollution in England. We are working with various partners, including local authorities, to improve our evidence base and assess and manage any environmental risks.”
The Fire Council did not respond to requests for comment.