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What are historic landfills?
Why is historic landfill research important?
What are historic coastal landfills?
Why is historic coastal landfill research important?
My PhD research
My publications
My research in the news

What are historic landfills?

The Environment Agency in England uses the following definition:

“A historic (closed) landfill site is one where there is no PPC [Pollution Prevention and Control] permit or waste management licence currently in force. This includes sites that existed before the waste licensing regime, if a site has been licensed in the past, and this licence has been revoked, ceased to exist or surrendered and a certificate of completion has been issued” (Environment Agency, 2010b).

Historic landfills generally predate modern environmental regulations and the waste they contain is typically not isolated from the surrounding environment. Historic landfills are sometimes called ‘old landfills’ or ‘legacy landfills’.

Why is historic landfill research important?

There are approximately 20,000 historic landfills in England and hundreds of thousands globally, but climate change impacts on the pollution risk from historic landfills in freshwater environments has received little attention. Where climate change causes an increase in the frequency and magnitude of fluvial flood events, this will increase leachate generation and the probability of landfill erosion and solid waste release. Where there is increased drought the landfill capping materials may crack, opening up new pollutant pathways, and increasing the risk of solid waste release. Changes to groundwater movement resulting from climate change may open new leachate pathways, and in England alone, hundreds of historic landfills are in ecologically sensitive sites, and thousands are in (groundwater) Source Protection Zones where modern regulations to protect drinking water supplies would not permit their construction. In the UK, this is unlikely to pose a risk to human health, because drinking water quality is closely monitored. However, this increased contaminant release from historic landfills in freshwater environments may impact surface and/or groundwater quality and ecological health, increase costs for drinking water monitoring/treatment, or make some abstraction sources unviable. This is especially of concern where receptors are subject to multiple pressures and may cause tipping points to be reached. Further information can be found in Brand and Spencer (2023).

What are historic coastal landfills?

A historic coastal landfill site is a historic landfill site that has a 0.5% annual probability of being flooded by the sea ignoring the protection offered by any flood defences that may be present (Brand, 2017). This definition includes landfill sites that are currently protected by flood defences, this is for two reasons:

1. It is important to highlight the existence of these defended sites when considering how many historic landfill sites affect coastal management.
2. In some locations historic landfill sites are the flood defences, e.g. Hadleigh Marsh waste filled flood embankment in Essex.

The Environment Agency’s ‘Flood Map for Planning (Rivers and Sea) – Flood Zone 3’ has been used to determine which historic landfill sites are historic coastal landfill sites. Over 1200 historic coastal landfill sites have been identified in England (Brand et al, 2017). The locations of these sites can be seen in these maps.

Why is historic coastal landfill research important?

10% of England’s historic coastal landfills are predicted to start eroding into coastal or estuarine waters by 2055 if they are not adequately protected (Brand et al, 2017), and some have already started to erode and release waste materials into the coastal environment (pictured above-the beach at East Tilbury, Essex is covered in eroded landfill waste). Climate change is predicted to cause more frequent and intense storm events, more frequent river and coastal flooding, sea-level rise, increased saline intrusion into estuaries and rivers, and higher coastal storm surges (Titus et al., 1991; Lowe et al., 2009; Environment Agency, 2010a; 2012; IPCC, 2012), which increases the risk of these historic coastal landfills flooding or eroding. Therefore, there is the increasing likelihood of leachates and contaminated materials being released to the marine environment as a result inundation with tidal waters and/or breach of the defences. Many historic coastal landfills are within or close to environmentally sensitive sites, e.g. bathing water areas, SSSIs, SACs, RAMSAR sites, and the potential for harm to people and the environment as a result of historic coastal landfills releasing leachates or solid waste materials is not fully understood. Further information can be found in Brand et al (2017).

My PhD research

My PhD thesis ‘Assessing the risk of pollution from historic coastal landfills’ can be downloaded from here. My research:

1. Investigated the magnitude and variability of organic and inorganic contaminants in two historic coastal landfills in Essex – Hadleigh Marsh and Leigh Marshes.
2. Investigated inorganic contaminant release to solution following freshwater and seawater inundation and/or erosion of historic landfill sites.
3. Developed and tested a new comparative risk screening assessment for low-lying, historic coastal landfills to support landfill managers when prioritising limited resources, which considers:
   •    The risk of waste being released from a historic coastal landfill.
   •    The risk of pollution if waste is released.

I did my PhD research in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, for further information about historic landfill research at QMUL click here.

My publications

Historic landfills:

• Brand, J. H. (2017) Assessing the risk of pollution from historic coastal landfills PhD thesis
• Brand, J. H. and Spencer, K. L. (2017) Assessing the risk of pollution from historic coastal landfills – executive summary for the Environment Agency
• Brand, J. H., Spencer, K. L., O’Shea, F. T. and Lindsay, J. E. (2018) Potential pollution risks of historic landfills on low‐lying coasts and estuaries. WIREs Water, 5: e1264. doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1264
• Brand, J. H. and Spencer, K. L. (2018) Risk screening assessment for ranking historic coastal landfills by pollution risk. Anthropocene Coasts, 1:44-61, https://doi.org/10.1139/anc-2018-0001
• Brand, J. H. and Spencer, K. L. (2019) Potential contamination of the coastal zone by eroding historic landfills. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 146:282-291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.06.017
• Brand, J. H. and Spencer, K. L. (2020) Will flooding or erosion of historic landfills result in a significant release of soluble contaminants to the coastal zone? Science of the Total Environment, 724:1-13. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138150
• Brand, J. H. and Spencer, K. L. (2023) Potential pollution risks of historic landfills in England: Further analysis of climate change impacts. WIREs Water, e1706. doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1706

Other research topics:

• Haigh, I.D., Inayatillah, A., Brand J.H., Francis, K., Mortley, A., Fantuzzy, L., Palmer, E., Miller, C. and Hogarth, P. (2021) Historic sea level records in the Thames Estuary, UK, 1911 – 1995. NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC. https://doi:10.5285/b66afb2c-cd53-7de9-e053-6c86abc0d251
• Inayatillah, A., Haigh, I. D., Brand J. H., Francis, K., Mortley, A., Durrant, M., Fantuzzy, L., Palmer, E., Miller, C. and Hogarth, P. (2022) Digitising historical sea level records in the Thames Estuary, UK. Nature – Scientific Data, 9: 167. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01223-7

My research in the news

• QMUL School of Geography news: What lies beneath? PhD study digs down to reveal legacy of landfill under our feet (2^nd April 2014)
• The Independent: Landfill dumps across UK ‘at risk of leaking hazardous chemicals’ (21^st February 2016)
• QMUL press release: Floods and coastal erosion may expose contents of UK landfills, study finds (5^th May 2016)
• The Guardian: Pollution risk from over 1,000 old UK landfill sites due to coastal erosion (5^th May 2016)
• The Ends Report: Landfill: What lurks beneath? (23^rd September 2016)
• BBC Radio 4: What Lies Beneath: The Legacy of Landfill (20^th June 2017)
• The ENDS Report: One in ten historic landfills at risk of releasing waste (21^st November 2017)
• Advanced Science News: Pollution Risks of Historic Landfills on Coasts and Estuaries (22^nd January 2018)
• The Times: Storm risk to coastal landfill sites (26^th January 2018)
• BBC Countryfile (9^th December 2018) – watch my interview here
• Sunday Post: Washed up rubbish from at least 50 years ago sparks fears that coastal landfill sites are polluting Scotland’s seas (11^th February 2019)
• ITV news: Residents call for action over eroded landfill site on Lynemouth Beach (18^th February 2019)
• CIWEM’s The Environment magazine: What lies beneath (December 2019/January 2020)
• The Guardian: What lies beneath: the nature park covering up a dirty secret (15^th February 2020)
• The Guardian: The rubbishscapes of Essex: why our buried trash is back to haunt us (18^th May 2023)

References

• BRAND, J. (2017). Assessing the risk of pollution from historic coastal landfills. PhD, Queen Mary University of London.
• ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2010a). Essex and South Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan 2. United Kingdom.
• ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2010b). Guidance for Historic Landfill GeoStore Users.
• ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2012). Climate change explained [Online]. Environment Agency. Available: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/climatechange/31802.aspx [Accessed 28th February 2013].
• ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2017). Historic Landfills GIS Shapefile (downloaded 13/4/2017).
• IPCC (2012). Summary for Policymakers. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. London and New York.
• LOWE, J. A., HOWARD, T. P., PARDAENS, A., TINKER, J., HOLT, J., WAKELIN, S., MILNE, G., LEAKE, J., WOLF, J., HORSBURGH, K., REEDER, T., JENKINS, G., RIDLEY, J., DYE, S. & BRADLEY, S. (2009). UK Climate Projections science report: Marine and coastal projections. UKCP09 scientific reports. Exeter, UK.
• TITUS, J. G., PARK, R. A., LEATHERMAN, S. P., WEGGEL, J. R., GREENE, M. S., MAUSEL, P. W., BROWN, S., GAUNT, C., TREHAN, M. & YOHE, G. (1991). Greenhouse effect and sea level rise: The cost of holding back the sea. Coastal Management, 19, 171-204.