Millions needed to clean up Clyde’s ‘Brochovich’ disaster
TENS of millions of pounds are needed to clean up a century-old ‘Erin Brockovich’ toxic disaster on the Clyde, authorities have warned.
Experts have long warned that Scotland faces a major bill to decontaminate dumps of cancer-causing chemicals in and near Glasgow.
But now a major regeneration quango has said it does not have the money needed to clear chromium-VI, the poison made famous by the Hollywood film about Californian anti-pollution campaigner Erin Brockovich.
Clyde Gateway says it lacks “tens of millions” it needs to make safe the former J&J White Chemical factory in Shawfield, Rutherglen, which shut in 1967.
The agency’s announcement came after authorities closed off an entire stream in nearby Oatlands, Glasgow. The Polmadie Burn turned green last month thanks to chromium-VI washed from Shawfield across the council border in South Lanarkshire.
Local SNP and Labour MPs have now joined forces to urge additional public cash for the work – especially as Brexit closed down longstanding European Union funding for Scotland’s decontamination efforts
Glasgow Central’s Alison Thewliss MP said: “There is a huge post-industrial legacy here to be looked at, with chromium being dumped across this area.
“It is now for all parties to get together to find a solution for this. My constituents are worried – and rightly so.”
Clyde Gateway in May will begin work injecting chemicals to neutralise the chromium-VI over a 2.5-hectare part of what it calls Shawfield Phase 2, a 30-hectare slice of Rutherglen where J&J White was based.
It will spent £5million on this plot alone – suggesting the final bill to clean up the site could be in the range of £60m.
Rutherglen’s MP, Labour’s Ged Killen, said the poisoning of Polmadie was “a real visual representation” of what was happening across the region.
He said: “In places in Rutherglen,the only indication that there has been any toxic legacy would be the warning signs. A lot of them have gone now.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Historical ground contamination at the Shawfield site does remain an issue, but there are plans in place for further work to be undertaken to remediate a portion of the land there in the near future.
“We will continue to support Clyde Gateway’s on-going efforts to address the issues.”