Current UK regulations with regard to toxic waste disposal and the danger to human life, to our environment, and to the planet as a whole, from both historic landfill sites and currently approved landfill sites operating the ‘dry tomb’ principle, are dangerously inadequate. Especially so, in the face of climate breakdown, with rising sea levels, increased rainfall, and widespread flooding.
In 2014, 7-year-old Zane Gbangbola died and his father was paralysed with a diagnosis of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) poisoning, during catastrophic flooding in the first UK floods acknowledged to be caused by climate change. Flood water passing through a historic landfill site carried HCN into Zane’s home, detected there at high levels by the Fire and Rescue Services on the night of the tragedy.
‘Zane’s Law’ seeks to address the crisis of contaminated land in the UK, reinstating legislative provisions removed by successive governments from the 1990 Environment Protection Act, and recognising the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, endorsed by the UN General Assembly, in July 2022.
‘Zane’s Law’ proposes that the following measures be vigorously pursued, with no ambiguity in government guidance, to prioritise the protection and safety of people and planet, and the human right to a healthy environment, above all other considerations.
1. Every Local Authority must keep a full, regularly updated Register of Land that may be contaminated within their boundary.
2. The Environment Agency must keep a full, public 'National Register of Contaminated Land' to be regularly updated by information from Local Authorities.
3. All above mentioned Registers of Land must be accessible and available for inspection by the General Public.
4. Relevant Local Authorities must fully inspect any land registered that may be contaminated and must fully remediate or enforce remediation of any land which poses harm to public safety, or which pollutes controlled waters*.
5. Relevant Local Authorities must be responsible for inspecting previously closed landfill sites and fully remediating them, or enforcing their remediation when they pose a risk of significant harm to people or controlled waters.
6. The Government must take full responsibility for providing the necessary funds for Local Authorities to meet these new requirements, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle: to recover costs as appropriate where those responsible for the pollution can be identified.
* Controlled waters are groundwater or surface water intended for human consumption.
