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- Pledge some money to the Epynt Disaster Fund. Click here
- Print the current news release and distribute. (8th August 2001) Click here
- Phone 01874 636107 or fax 01874 636960 with any news about the Eypnt site
- Mail, fax or email the Leader of your local council, Environment Health Officer, National Assembly member and MEP. Click here for email links
- Write to any other person who may be able to influence the situation.
- Join the demonstration at Trecastle. Phone or email for more details.
- Write a comment:
Epynt is a site of extraordinary beauty on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in mid Wales, UK. The rivers and habitat are now threatened by the actions of the UK government who are mis-handling the current foot-and-mouth outbreak.
120 days of burning and 20,000 tons of ash laterAt last the National Assembly has decided to remove the ash from the Epynt burn site which is estimated by them to be 20,000 tons in weight. This seems an immense amount of ash to burn up to 40,000 carcasses of which 7,000 were cattle. Unlike many of the other pyres there was no space created beneath the fire to enable it to draw properly. In consequence the ash contains much unburnt matter including railway sleepers, bits of plastic borehole lining and burial pit lining, coal and, possibly, some carcass remains, certainly bones. There are five pyres altogether – one of which came from the aborted burial pit. Some of the pyres are still burning and in order to cool these down for removal they are being spread out and sprayed with water drawn from surrounding streams. The water is being caught in drains and being recycled by means of lagoons. See "Latest" for full details. Ash will be transported in sealed sea containers to a properly licensed landfill site. The current estimate is that there will be 30 containers moved every day for 7 days a week over a period of 8 weeks, that is approximately 1,600 movements. Presumably not all container loads will be the full 20 tons they hope to move in one load. The Epynt Action Group will be monitoring progress carefully and is seeking volunteers to act as observers during this period. It is not known yet how much material will have to be removed in addition to the ash in order to remediate the site. Clearly, from the first day the site was opened it has proven to be a disaster for the environment and public health. It has also been a very expensive exercise for the tax-payer. For this reason there needs to be a public enquiry in order to establish how so many errors were made, who was to blame and how such a disaster can be avoided in the future. It is also worth noting that until the Epynt was used for carcass disposal there was no Foot and Mouth in the Brecon area. Since then a number of outbreaks have occurred along the main roads used by the carcass lorries going to the Epynt. This could, of course, be a coincidence but there were a number of incidences involving spillages, lorries getting lost and lorries stopping en-route. The Epynt Action Group has a full log of all these incidences. Parts of the Epynt and the river Towy are designated Special Areas of Conservation and the rivers Usk and Towy, whose feeders rivers come from the Epynt, are also Special Sites of Scientific Interest. It is hard to believe that a worse place could have been chosen. A brief history of events so far Please support us in our action |