"Rewilding" the Bedwas coal tip

I had not heard about the Bedwas coal tip (didn't even know what a coal tip was), until noticing a mounting outcry by the local population about "rewilding concerns" (by now nearly 4'000 have signed the petition against the project) - of course I was intrigued and decided to take a closer look. Turns out that rewilding is not the issue, at all - what's proposed is a massive business venture, with an eventual re-naturalizaton effect.

As it turns out, the local community would like nothing more than more nature and they are, in fact, fighting to keep the nature they currently have. In short, here's the thing: There's a huge mound of coalmining spoil and a danger that it might eventually cause harm. A privately-owned commercial company named ERI Reclamation (ERI stands for Energy Recovery Investments) has come up with a plan and project that promises to fix everything.

What's a coal tip?

A coal tip, officially a spoil tip, is essentially a huge side effect of the coal mining industry. The term used in North America is frankly more to the point - there these sites are simply called mine dumps or mine waste dumps - usually the 'spoil' consists of removed materials such as soil and rocks. If you check through the above-linked Wikipedia article, you'll come across spoil tip sites from around the world - and they are invariably truly sore sights.

The proposed project

It sounds great - just look at the images. First you have the coal dumps behind your home, and then you don't. All that's left are beautiful green hills, slightly lowered. ERI has a plan that is expected to take up to ten years to complete.

They say that this won't cost the taxpayer a thing - and here's why: They plan to remove the spoil (about 500'000 tonnes) one truck load at a time, haul it to a processing plant (initially 60 trucks a day, then later about 20 a day), where the remaining coal is extracted. That coal is then sent to cement factories where it will be used. All of that will pump an additional 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 into the air - at a time when we should be doing our utmost to reduce greenhouse gases. Some of the money ERI makes from selling that coal will then apparently be used to cover what's left of the tips with soil and thus to restore the hills to a somewhat natural state.

Climate change disaster

According to the Coal Action Network , there are over 300 such coal tips registered in South Wales alone. They explain that many communities simply lack the funds to restore such tips to natural states - and so projects like ERI's Bedwas proposal, if adopted, may become the norm.

As the Coal Action Network says, "This would be disastrous for our climate and represent total contempt for the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act." I think they rightly point out that this type of venture could mark the beginning of a new era of coal mining in Wales.

Are coal tips dangerous?

They absolutely can be. The 1966 Aberfan disaster is all the proof needed. Then there was the Tylorstown landslide in 2020, showing what such a slide might look like. Extreme weather conditions do indeed create more intense rain and storm and flooding conditions - so there's that, there might indeed be a Tylorstown-like slide in the future. And the Welsh Government in 2023 has released a list that considers Bedwas 'most at risk' - but then Julie James , the Welsh climate change minister, said about the listed tips that "It does not mean they are unsafe, but they may be larger and are more likely to be closer to communities or major infrastructure.”

To be fair to ERI, in their information paper they do highlight that the "the main risks associated with these tips are understood to be 'risk of tip fire and contamination of local watercourses, with land stability being of a lesser concern'."

Opinion

ERI does an excellent job at presenting their project - but they've far from convinced me that it is anything other than business. I get that, it makes sense. This massive project would likely make good money and - as the Coal Action Network suggests - could turn into a veritable bonanza (pun intended) for ERI with so many more coal tips out there across Wales and beyond.

As far as I can see there is no need for this project. From looking at images and 3D Google Earth views, slides would nowhere near reach the towns of Bedwas or Trethomas. For the other mentioned risks there are most certainly other mitigation measures available. Then there's the CO2 disaster of thousands upon thousands of lorries and bulldozer hours and coal delivered to cement factories who use it to power their furnaces. Every single bit of CO2 created as part of this project can be avoided by simple not going forward. Then there's nature - the project would, according to local communities, increase risks to health of people and wildlife currently living there.

The project does not increase safety, it impacts health of people and nature, and it causes a gargantuan amount of CO2 emissions that can be avoided by simple not doing it. Good business? Possibly so. Good for people, nature, planet? It most certainly doesn't look like it.

To learn more about the proposed project's many negative impacts, go here or watch below video by the Coal Action Network.

???????? Support the local campaign group's effort