TO EVALUATE THE PATHWAYS AND IMPACTS OF LANDFILL CONTAMINANTS IN THE MARINE FOOD CHAIN DUE TO COASTAL EROSION: LYME BAY LANDFILL

The UK is a densely populated country with a long history of industrialisation and maritime trade, such that there are numerous waste landfills and chemically contaminated sites (commonly known as 'brownfield sites') around the UK coastline. There is potential for such contaminated sites to be affected by coastal erosion or flooding, depending on the complex interactions between short-term events (eg storm surges) or long-term processes (eg climate change and sea-level rise). Coastal communities also need to reflect on the lessons learned from recent flooding in river valleys, such as in summer 2007 where landfills and other infrastructure were flooded in Gloucestershire and the Severn valley leading to potentially serious public health impacts (Pitt Review 2008). Therefore, the climate change and chemical contaminants issue is highly relevant to the challenge of Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) for the UK, as shown by the new major environmental and health research programme involving NERC, other UK research councils, government agencies and industry. This 10 year multidisciplinary programme aims to provide decision makers and the public with the best information to effectively manage and protect vital ecosystem services (eg food security and public health) across the time and space scales which affect the UK economy. A real-world example of the 'LWEC-contaminants' challenge is currently happening on the Dorset coast, where coastal erosion and landslip activity has recently uncovered a historic landfill which is now falling into the sea within the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. At the present time, the landfill contents are being increasingly exposed due to unusually heavy June - July rainfall, leading to landfill waste (eg fridges and car batteries) falling onto the beach below and chemicals likely entering the waters of Lyme Bay. The affected area is both a nationally-important marine ecosystem and an important shellfishery, hence chemicals from the landfill could pollute the shellfish and shoreline of Lyme Bay and pose a potential risk to public health and local marine life. As the Lyme Bay landfill was used for mixed waste over more than 80 years, likely contaminants will include mixtures of toxic heavy metals, old paint, oil compounds and other organic chemicals. With advice and support for access from the Environment Agency and West Dorset County Council, we are proposing to address pollution pathways and potential affects of chemical mixtures in the marine life of Lyme Bay, especially local shellfish stocks. In these types of situations, it is essential to rapidly assess and mitigate contaminant threats, hence we propose to deploy the RAMP approach (Rapid Assessment of Marine Pollution) to provide a rapid and integrated assessment of the pathways and impacts of chemical mixtures. The overall objective of the research is therefore to rapidly evaluate the initial impacts of heavy metal and organic contaminant uptake into the marine food chain and define potential human and wildlife exposure pathways to a variety of organic and inorganic contaminants coming from landfill waste. Our specific research objectives are to assess: (1) potential exposure of the public to contaminants via the marine food chain (eg shellfish) along the Dorset coastline; (2) exposure of the public and pets to contaminants while on the popular nearby beaches and bathing waters (3) exposure pathways and impacts of contaminants on marine animals (with invertebrates as the priority group). These objectives will be met via cooperative working between Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA), addressing organic and heavy metal contaminants, respectively. In addition to the important relevance of this landfill incident in an LWEC context, this proposal is directly relevant to the NERC Strategic Theme on Environment, Pollution and Human Health, with an emphasis on the human - wildlife connection.