Our concerns and questions
What has been established, what has not, and what we are putting to the organisations involved.
The Health and Safety Executive has said what caused the flooding. We are grateful for the speed of that response. But knowing the immediate cause is not the same as knowing how the risk came to reach our homes, or whether it has been removed.
These are the things that concern us, and the questions we are putting to the organisations involved.
Whether the risk to homes was ever assessed
The planning and technical assessments appear to have considered mine water, flooding and drainage. Our concern is whether they assessed the pathway that actually mattered on 30 July, which was the route out of the workings and down towards the village, rather than water entering the quarry and being contained within it.
We are asking: was the possibility of water leaving the mine system and travelling towards homes outside the quarry boundary assessed, and if so, by whom and with what conclusion?
Whether there is a continuing risk
The HSE has said this was an isolated incident, and that inspectors confirmed the rock voids and the adit were not compromised.
Residents have described what appear to be two new openings on the hill, and are concerned about the stability of the workings, particularly the South West Stoping area. We are not in a position to reconcile those two things ourselves, and we are not asserting that the HSE is wrong. We are asking for the position to be made clear, in public, in terms residents can understand.
We are asking: can an independent assessment of the stability of the Garth Iron Mine workings be carried out and published, and can the position be reviewed before periods of heavy rain?
Whether blasting should continue meanwhile
Given that the flooding followed a planned blast, and that the HSE’s investigation into the blast design has not yet reported, we are concerned about blasting continuing close to the old workings in the meantime.
We are asking: should blasting near the Garth Iron Mine be paused until the investigation reports and independent experts have confirmed it is safe to resume?
Whether residents were properly informed
The most recent major planning application affecting the quarry, reference 20/02351/MJR, was a variation of earlier permissions. Among other things it allowed changes to the permitted extraction boundary, provided for access to the Garth Iron Mines, and revised the working, blasting, drainage, ecological protection, restoration, aftercare and mine protection schemes. A later variation provided for the quarry to be deepened.
Welsh planning guidance expects major developments to involve meaningful community consultation, not only technical documents placed online.
Most people living below the hill did not know that blasting was taking place near the old iron mine workings, or that those workings held a large volume of water.
We are asking: what was done to inform residents, in plain language, about the risks that had been identified, how flooded mine workings were to be managed, how blasting and mine stability would be controlled, and who was responsible for monitoring?
What we want to see disclosed
To understand what happened and what protects us now, we are asking the relevant organisations to release:
- Blast records for the period concerned
- Drainage and water management records
- Inspection records for the quarry and the mine workings
- Permit information held by Natural Resources Wales
- Correspondence between the operator and the regulators
- Water and sludge testing results
- Any LiDAR, drone or other survey data
- A full explanation of how the West Adit and the mine water pathway were assessed
A note on what we are and are not saying
We are a residents’ group, not investigators. Where something has been established, we say so and we say who established it. Where we are concerned, we say that we are concerned. Where we do not know, we ask.
We have not concluded that anyone acted wrongly, and nothing on this site should be read as saying so. The HSE investigation is continuing and we will report what it finds, whatever it finds.
If we get something wrong, tell us and we will correct it.