Wales - Abercwmboi - Furnacite plant and Welsh valleys village

Looking down into a steep-sided valley, Distant streets and working-class terraced homes are beyond smoking chimneys from a Furnacite coking plant at Abercwmboi. Once known as the worst polluter in Britain it was owned by the National Coal Board (NCB) and sold to the Welsh Development Asoociation (WDA) for £1 Pound though arguments are still raging about how to clear it up and cleanup estimates range from £15-£20 million. The pollution had cruel effects on the local population. It made smokeless coal and locals joked that the plant took the smoke out and dumped it on the Cynon Valley but there was concern about toxic waste dumped in the village after the plant's closure and some suffered birth defects. Ironically, the plant was closed because of environmental considerations.

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Looking down into a steep-sided valley, Distant streets and working-class terraced homes are beyond smoking chimneys from a Furnacite coking plant at Abercwmboi. Once known as the worst polluter in Britain it was owned by the National Coal Board (NCB) and sold to the Welsh Development Asoociation (WDA) for £1 Pound though arguments are still raging about how to clear it up and cleanup estimates range from £15-£20 million. The pollution had cruel effects on the local population. It made smokeless coal and locals joked that the plant took the smoke out and dumped it on the Cynon Valley but there was concern about toxic waste dumped in the village after the plant's closure and some suffered birth defects. Ironically, the plant was closed because of environmental considerations.