Fly-tippers have dumped a “mountain of illegal waste” in Oxfordshire so large that removing it could cost more than the local council’s annual budget, the area’s MP has said.
Hundreds of tonnes of waste piled up to 10 meters high were seen piled up in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington. One charity called the huge pile of garbage “an environmental disaster clearly unfolding.”
Callum Miller, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, told Parliament, “The estimated cost of removal exceeds the entire annual budget of the local district council”.
He said: “Criminals have dumped mountains of illegal waste weighing hundreds of tonnes on the flood plain adjacent to the River Cherwell in my constituency. The Environment Agency said it had limited resources for enforcement.”
Friends of Thames said the illegal garbage dump was built by an organized crime group about a month ago. It states that no direct prevention or mitigation measures exist.
Laura Reineke, chief executive of the charity, said: “This is clearly an environmental disaster unfolding.
“An illegal landfill on the floodplain of one of our most important waterways – the River Cherwell – has been allowed to create a mountain of waste just meters away.
“With each passing day the risk of toxic runoff entering the river system increases, poisoning wildlife and endangering the health of the entire catchment.
“The Environment Agency must act now, not in months or years – which is their normal response time.”
Billy Burnell, a local fisherman who regularly fishes in the area, told the BBC he saw the pile in September. He said it was “appalling” and called potential runoff into the river an “environmental disaster waiting to happen.”
Anya Gleiser, a geography researcher at the University of Oxford, said: “What we have on our hands now is an environmental and health emergency that not only threatens the River Cherwell and its ecosystem, but also poses a direct threat to us: the communities living downstream from the dump-site,” she said.
“As an ecologist, river protector, boater, but more simply, as a mother of a child who loves walking and fishing for aquatic invertebrates, I must emphasize that this crime has more far-reaching consequences.”
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The Environment Agency has obtained a court order to close the site to all public access for at least six months.
A spokesperson said: “Specialist officers are investigating waste dumped near the A34 in Kidlington. Their role will be to find out who left the waste there and appropriate action will be taken.”
In a report released last month, the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee said organized crime gangs were illegally dumping millions of tonnes of waste across the country every year.
The Committee identified the inefficiency of the Environment Agency as a factor in the growing crisis.
But the agency’s chief executive Philip Duffy hit back, saying, “I think it is deeply unfair of my hard-working staff to be accused of incompetence.”