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Two men have been arrested as a component of an inquiry into the dumping of many thousands of tonnes of refuse in a rural field in the county of Oxfordshire.

Authorities stated that a 69-year-old was arrested at a dwelling in Hampshire's Andover, while a 54-year-old was taken into custody in the town of Slough in association with the huge pile of waste deposited near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

These apprehensions occur a week after a previous report which revealed the operation of in excess of 500 unauthorized tips throughout England, featuring at a minimum of 11 so-called "large-scale sites" larger than 20,000 tons.

A spokeswoman for the environmental body said that the arrests were for environment-related and proceeds of crime offences and constituted a "vital step" in continuing inquiries. The apprehended men have been released on bail.

Scale of the Issue

The illegal site in Kidlington, situated between the river Cherwell and the A34 road, is believed to contain around 21,000 tons of waste in a heap which is up to 150m (490ft) in length and 6m (20ft) tall.

This pile of rubbish is composed of what looks to be treated domestic waste, chopped up plastics, polystyrene, tyres and other household articles.

It is just a single of 517 unauthorized tips across the country, at a minimum of 11 of which contain over 20,000 tons of waste. These include a 280,000-tonne area in the county of Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall county and a 36,000-tonne site in Kent.

The actual amount of such larger locations is probably to be larger, as the environment agency has in the past acknowledged it does not possess data on volume for every unlawful tip.

Most such locations are in agricultural areas, frequently out of sight, and on land that should be farm property.

Organised Operations

Authorities report many are operated by criminal organizations, who are earning profit by charging much less than lawful companies to receive and dispose of garbage.

Businesses have to be liable for disposal fees to use legitimate waste facilities, based on the volume and category of refuse they are trying to dispose of, and a waste tax is also applied at just over £126 per ton.

Community Frustration

Preparatory work to clean up the Kidlington site began in recent weeks due to worries over the risk of combustion and the impact that would have on the nearby A-road.

A private waste clearance contractor has been granted the task to remediate the area over the following 12 months at a cost of £9.6m.

An compliance official for the national environmental crime unit stated that the authority would be aiming to recoup the remediation costs under asset recovery laws from any party prosecuted at the end of its current investigation.

She further stated that these detentions would help "drive the investigation forward" and allow officials to "pursue more lines of inquiry to understand precisely what occurred and who was implicated".

"The unlawful site at Kidlington was an atrocious and intentional attack on our natural surroundings and we share the community's outrage at this horrific offence," she said.

A senior representative welcomed the detentions, stating: "The unlawful deposit of rubbish at the site is appalling and has resulted in considerable damage to the natural world and upset to the nearby population.

"Our administration is dedicated to eliminating this type of crime across the nation, by augmenting resources to address waste crime, hiring more personnel and enacting stricter measures and fines for those who break the regulations."

The detentions were executed on a recent Thursday by officers from a dedicated crime team and are in addition to an previous apprehension of a man in his thirties from the Surrey region in last November. He was let go pending more investigations.