How FELT help WATERSHED uncover a toxic legacy

Thousands of old landfill sites, contaminated land, effluent discharge points, sewage dumping sites, chemicals plants, refineries, protected land and water, river water quality, bathing water quality, forever chemical pollution, protected land and seas… these are just some of the more than 120 environmental datasets that are available for anyone to see and use on the Watershed Pollution Map. 

It makes visible the challenges to our rivers, seas, wildlife and habitats. None of which would have been possible without the incredible technical capabilities of Felt, the cutting edge could-native GIS mapping platform, which enabled us to tackle datasets of all formats and sizes and visualise them simply and elegantly. We looked at other open source solutions like QGIS, but knew we needed something we could load different data formats in easily and embed across different news sources quickly and Felt fit the bill perfectly.

Invaluable too, are the wonderful team at Felt who have supported Watershed’s goals and understood the needs of an investigative journalism non-profit that wants to democratise environmental information and make it free to all to access wherever possible.

The map continues to be an enormous hit, which proves there is a need and an appetite for this kind of information. It is used by universities, academics, students, researchers, regulators, communities, campaign groups, NGOs, businesses and journalists, and received more than 700,000 views in its first few weeks.

As a result, Watershed published or was the source for the following stories, which either arose from analysing data from the map or while collating data that could then be visualised on the map:

We held workshops and a public event on the map at Cambridge University’s Data School, which was attended by professors, undergrads, postgrads, researchers, A-level students, NGOs and interested local people. We also presented to the Public Interest News Foundation’s network of local journalists and briefed organisations such as The Local Story Exchange and environmental NGOs on the map’s capabilities. 

It has been widely welcomed by people across a range of disciplines:

“This is a really great resource. Congratulations. It will also be a great teaching resource… and it is certainly doing the rounds as I’ve lost count of the number of messages I’ve got from people about it,” Liverpool John Moores University.

“Fantastic resource. Much needed,” Stockholm University.

“I’ve just been playing with the maps. They are great and already found some useful datasets. I can imagine we might also be able to set some useful exercises with the students. Well done!”

Portsmouth University.

“This is incredible! What a fantastic resource! We will definitely be using this.” Marine Conservation Society.

“Thank you so much for sharing the map with us. It is such a valuable tool and I just want to say a huge thank you for all the work you have done to pull this together. Having this data is so valuable for our campaigning.” CHEMTrust.

“It’s an amazing piece of work and a great public service… It’s going to be such an asset to so many people,” Guardian.

“I’ve shared with colleagues in Scot, NE, Yorks, West Mids, East Ang, Cornwall. It blew their minds, how much data there is. They are all studying it and are going to use it.” Local Story Exchange.

“I will definitely use it with journalism students”, City University 

We continue to add datasets and use the map to underpin and support our work going forward. We hope it is as much value to you as it is to us. 

 

 

Landfills across England could be leaking harmful toxic ooze, warn experts

Thousands of old landfills littered across the country potentially leaking toxic ooze and vapours are more likely to be found in deprived areas, our analysis of the sites from our new WATERSHED POLLUTION MAP reveals.

Thousands of polluted landfills across England could be leaking toxic chemicals into the environment and harming people who live nearby, experts have warned.

A few decades ago, the method for getting rid of industrial and domestic waste was to stick it in a hole in the ground, cover it up and hope for the best. It was known as “dilute and disperse” and it assumed toxic substances would seep into the surrounding soils, air and water and become harmless.

There are more than 21,000 of these “historic” landfills across England, with contents that are largely unknown. A report in the British Medical Journal found that 80% of the British population lives within 2km of a functioning or closed landfill site. The location of historic landfills and current waste sites can be viewed on a new pollution map published by Watershed Investigations, along with thousands of other potentially polluting sites.

In a second story, published simultaneously in the Guardian, we spoke to communities affected by both old landfills and operational waste sites.