Landfill Check

Rye House Power Station

SpecialLiquid / sludgeIndustrial

Rye House Power Station is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. It received special (hazardous), liquid/sludge and industrial waste between 1977 and 1983, covering about 6.18 hectares. Reference EAHLD12251, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD12251
Site nameRye House Power Station
AddressHoddesdon, Hertfordshire
Site operatorNot recorded
Licence holderPowergen Plc
Licence issued10 June 1977
Licence surrendered6 June 1983
First waste input30 June 1977
Last waste input1 January 1983
Area6.18 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaNorth East TH
Grid reference538800, 208500

Source: Environment Agency Historic Landfill Sites dataset, October 2025 revision.

Boundary map

What these waste types mean

Special:
the licensing-era term for hazardous waste — asbestos, chemicals, oils. The category that most warrants a closer look.
Liquid / sludge:
liquid wastes and sludges, such as sewage sludge or industrial effluent. Can be mobile in groundwater, so worth understanding.
Industrial:
factory and process waste. Contents vary widely — some benign, some not; the site's operator and era are the clues.

Other historic landfill sites nearby

What this data does — and doesn't — cover

  • Licensed-era records only. Waste licensing began in 1974. Older tips — especially small pre-war ones — are incompletely recorded, so absence from this data does not mean no landfill ever existed here.
  • Not the contaminated-land register. Councils hold a separate register of land determined as contaminated. A historic landfill entry is not a contamination determination, and vice versa.
  • Boundaries are indicative. Digitised at 1:10,000 scale; some are buffers around a point rather than surveyed edges.
  • Not a substitute for a formal environmental search. If you're buying, your conveyancer's environmental search checks this and several other sources.

EA Historic Landfill dataset, October 2025 revision. More on the methodology page.