This site is owned by Wrexham Council, who purchased it for, it is said, for £1. Since then, it has become a liability and a problem for the Council, the community, and Natural Resources Wales.
The site is like those at Hoole Bank Lagoon in Cheshire and the Cinderhill Tar Pits at Cinderhill and around Belper in Derbyshire.
Price of £40m to clean Llwyneinion ‘acid tar lagoon’
Published
BBC 23 March 2011
All acid tar pits and there are around 125 across the country of various sizes, there may well be more as many small ones have been lost.
They are unpleasant pollutions, acidic, often with a pH of 1 or less and the tars are often carcinogenic. They are not generally inflammable but if ignition is achieved, they are exceedingly difficult to extinguish, as was discovered in 1980 at Llwyneinion.
Detail.
As with Hoole Bank this lagoon has been researched and reported on to achieve its 2 A status of contaminated land. Sadly, though this public register of information is not readily available. Again, as with Hoole Bank we have discussed the site with some people involved with the site and its chemistry, also stakeholders within the community. We find that the lagoon contents are similar to those we have worked on at Cinderhill in Derbyshire over the last three years.
Lagoon on fire 1980.
Ice and snow on the tar pit flooded surface being melted by gases emanating from the tar beneath.
Intent.
The Trust offers it expertise gained on tar pits, and their low-cost methodology of treatment to the powers that be. To many sites across Europe have been subject to industrial clean-up which is both time hungry and hugely expensive. Alongside that people in the communities close by either suffer bad air quality or must leave homes and businesses for protracted periods of time whilst industrial scale clean up takes place.
Carbon Negative Solution.
The method we put forward for this site is non-invasive, allowing the gases undisturbed and in situ thus ensuring that gaseous emissions are only vented via the developing vegetive cover which will trap permanently CO2. This method allows the carbon within the site to develop into a growing carbon store aided by trees and bacteria growing through a compost bed of council derived or procured green waste composts. Simple, effective, and highly sustainable.
Detail.
The council and Natural Resources Wales have kept much of the research carried out on this site confidential.