Parents have banned their children from a north-east beach after oil was spotted seeping from an ageing landfill site into the North Sea.
Dog walkers who usually take to the sands at Blackdog near Aberdeen have also been shunning the spot because of the “gluey mess” on the shore.
The black liquid has been spotted along a mile-long stretch of coast between dunes at the small settlement close to the A90 and Blackdog Rock to the north.
Residents are now stopping their children from going near the area and both Aberdeenshire Council and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency have launched investigations.
The oil leak is believed to have been triggered by the torrential rain which caused flooding across the north-east.
The former landfill site at Blackdog is believed to have been used as a dumping spot between the 1930s and 1980s.
Edna Booth, secretary of the local residents association, said the cause of the pollution was drilling mud poured into the landfill three decades ago and claimed there could be as much as “12,000 gallons” in the ground.
She said: “It is running down into the sea. I think this coast has taken quite a battering from the last six or seven days and it is an ongoing situation.
“That beach has been polluted for 20 years. It has got a fairly checkered history.
“But I think it is the worst I have ever seen it. You are hardly safe going down there with animals and pets. The stuff coming out is a big, gluey mess.
“My neighbour went down there and felt sick afterwards. I don’t know who actually owns the landfill now.
“We have tried umpteen times to get the council to clean it up. The council has done various things over the years, but to no effect.
“I think it is getting to be a health hazard. We’d like to see it cleaned up.”
Fellow resident Nicola Brown added: “I wouldn’t want kids anywhere near there, absolutely not. It is just a mess the place. It is a shame because it is a really nice beach.
“I wouldn’t even go to that end, the smell is so strong. It just smells like oil.
“It is just another fight for Blackdog. It is really about time the councillors and whoever listened and did something.”
She added that due to flooding, an area to the south of Blackdog beach was also cut off to walkers.
Mrs Brown said: “There is absolutely nowhere for us now, we can’t go to the north beach because of the oil and now we can’t go south. You can’t even walk your dog on the beach.”
Aberdeenshire Council’s head of protective services, Belinda Miller, said the scale of the pollution had not been “to this extent” for some time.
She added: “Presently oil is being released at extreme high tide from contaminated sands located at depth below the foot of the dunes.
“This is an episodic event which has not occurred to this extent for several years.
“Recent unprecedented rainfall has caused the water table within the dunes to rise to the extent that a pre-existing depression is now flooded with contaminated water. This is expected to be of short duration.
“Blackdog is a privately-owned site and not a council landfill – we continue to work with the previous operators, current owners and Sepa to find a solution to prevent further hydrocarbon contamination.”
The liquid is not believed to be harmful.
A Sepa spokesman added: “Sepa is aware of recurring issues with oil on Blackdog Beach from a historic landfill site.
“While the landfill site predates the formation of Sepa and current regulatory legislation for controlling water pollution, Sepa is assisting Aberdeenshire Council, who are seeking a resolution for this complex problem by way of land remediation.”
Local councillor Allan Hendry said: “A lot of the land there is totally dead. When the landfill was formed in the late 1930s they just dumped anything and everything.
“They didn’t get the licences for it until the 1980s.
“It has been going on for years and years and years. There was samples taken some time ago by the council’s environment people. They couldn’t find contamination.”
