Akzo Nobel / International Paints Laboratory Remediation

Akzo Nobel held a meeting in June with key organisations to describe their remediation plans for the River Yealm following the court case.

Attached are key documents from that meeting and subsequently.

A further public meeting is planned to be held in September 2023 in the WI Hall – date yet to be advised.

( Please subscribe to our newsletter in order to be kept informed of the date of that meeting).

Included is a joint letter from N&N Parish Council, River Yealm Harbour Authority and the RYDA requesting clarification on the following points :

There is evidence of contamination beyond your proposed remediation boundary and we need to understand how the wider area that has been contaminated will be managed.
We believe that there is a need to continue sampling for verification for some time after completion of the remediation, we suggest on completion and then after a month, a year and five years.
There is concern about short term acute impacts due to a possible spike of resuspended material and pollutants in the estuary, with the possibility of longer-term chronic effects due to remobilization of contamination from anoxic sediments into an oxygenated environment.
There will be collateral damage from sediment removal due to the machinery and barges to be used: existing long-lived plants and animals living on top of the contaminated area will be removed which will likely de-stabilize the sediments.

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