St. Modwen 30 Years : A Generation of Regeneration 1 | Page 12

ST. MODWEN | A GENERATION OF REGENERATION | COED DARCY, SOUTH WALES

The end result was a structural material which
could be used to build road embankments for
Coed Darcy without having to bring in
construction materials.
Neil Williams explained the advantages:
“One aim of the remediation has been to keep
the movement of waste in and out of the site to a
minimum by reusing as much as possible at Coed
Darcy. With landfill tax at £72 a tonne we wanted
to retain all our waste on site”.
The lighter hydrocarbons, which formed a top
layer on open ponds, reservoirs and shallow
groundwater, were easier to handle. They could
be removed with specialist mops for recycling
into oil products.
Earth that was less heavily contaminated but still
in need of cleaning was subject to bioremediation,
where natural soil bacteria broke down the
hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water.

Coed Darcy cleaned up: with clear waters and thriving wildlife

Despite the past century’s industrial activity,
Llandarcy retained some rich wildlife on its
doorstep – notably Crymlyn Bog and Pant y Sais
National Nature Reserve, the largest surviving
lowland fen in Wales. This internationally important
wetland is providing a natural source of native
plants and animals to spread back across the
site. According to Natural Resources Wales, Coed
Darcy already hosts the largest population of
great crested newts in Wales.
St. Modwen’s Neil Williams deserves the
last words:

“We have turned this site
from a black place into a
lovely, green environment.”

To introduce the oxygen needed for this process,
the ground was ploughed up to form rows of earth
that could be aerated further by turning them over
every two or three weeks.

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