Welsh Government Has Not Yet Divulged The Exact Site Of Wales’ Ancient Coal Tips

Experts have called for an early-warning system to detect activity in abandoned coal mines.

As landslides were picked up by systems that track volcanoes, authorities were alerted. In addition, Prof. Karen Hudson-Edwards says that people in the immediate area may get similar notifications on their mobile devices.

According to the Welsh government, technology might be used to monitor tips, including possible “warning features,” according to the Welsh government.  As an advisor to the Law Commission’s study of coal tips, Professor Hudson-Edwards called for more safeguards.  Prof. Hudson-Edwards advises putting probes on the coal tip’s face to monitor fast temperature or movement changes.  Remote monitoring devices are presently being tested on a limited number of high-risk tips in Wales, and satellite imaging was launched in September.  Maps representing varied land uses, such as buildings and homes or schools and agricultural land, might be drawn up, according to Prof Hudson-Edwards of Exeter University’s Camborne School of Mines.

“If there is a failure, we can determine the course of any spilled material by connecting it to where the coal tips are.  As part of the mining business, we’ve discussed installing warning systems in communities.  According to Coal Authority statistics, the Welsh government believes that 40% of all UK coal tips are located in Wales, with one in seven of those classified as high-risk sites.  Tylorstown Landslide spurred new research to identify 2,456 abandoned waste disposal sites in Wales, with 327 of them classified as high-risk sites.

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According to researchers, more “severe weather” in south Wales has been forecast as a result of climate change.  The Welsh government is requesting funds from the United Kingdom government to help reuse, recover, and clean up dumping sites.  As a result, Westminster claimed that Wales’ budget would cover the £600 million cost over the following 15 years.

Approximately 70 percent of Wales’ coal tips are privately held, making installing a statewide warning system complicated and presumably requiring negotiating by a significant number of landowners.  The Welsh Government issued a council-by-council breakdown of where Wales’ historic coal tips are. Still, it has failed to divulge the exact location of the tips despite demand from opposition parties and people.

Scientists have also proposed computer modeling to predict increasing rainfall and floods around coal-fired power plants.  A rise in the risk of unstable tipping points has already been addressed in Wales by the Welsh government and municipalities.

Professor Foster said it was impossible to forecast exact changes in rainfall. Still, studies had shown a 6% rise in winter rainfall in south Wales by the 2050s – and he added that more significant rain might weaken tips and lead to “instability concerns.”  The Welsh government has confirmed that a coal tip safety technology experiment is now ongoing.  According to a spokesperson, one of this study’s main goals is to understand better how conditions and triggers interact.

Potential receptors are reviewed as part of an investigation of coal tips’ risk assessment.

It said that “hazard effect modeling” was being studied with local authorities and that “the use of technology to monitor coal tips would complement the new management regime we have pledged to adopt in main law during this Senedd term.”