Contaminated land case study - Wolverhampton

After more than four years of investigations and public consultations, twelve households on the site of the former Courtaulds Dunstall Hall Works factory in Wolverhamton, have been formally declared as contaminated.

Wolverhampton City Council made the declaration on October 21 2009, under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The council is now investigating who is liable for the contamination, with the intention of making them pay the estimated £1 million remediation bill. It is understood that if those liable can’t be found, the Council may make arrangements to do the work itself, meaning grateful residents shouldn’t be faced with the enormous remediation costs themselves.

This case dates back to 2005 when tests were originally undertaken on almost 600 properties on the Farndale Estate in Whitmore Reans. The initial results revealed high levels of the chemical carbon disulphide, used in the manufacture of rayon, and subsequent investigations have confirmed unacceptably high levels in twelve properties.

A spokesman of the company conducting the carbon disulphide remediation programme said that, weather permitting, the clean-up project which started in Spring 2008, was on schedule to be completed by Spring 2010.

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