And so the long muted “cappenslaag” or geotextile membrane has reached its destination at Rattlechain lagoon. After the phoney dredging operation which removed weed but little else from the smaller lagoon, we now have the world’s biggest bin liner unfolding before our eyes.
As with everything else connected to this waste dump, it arrived on the back of a lorry.
Later on the sheets were unpacked on the beach area- NB “the beach area” has existed for many years- and was so called because of the waste built up there. They are now trying to reinvent this area even though the waste is buried there. Sandcastle building it ain’t.
Today the great unfolding on The North embankment- covering half the North embankment- oh it’s about “protecting the birds bottom feeding” wasn’t it?
And there were some odd moments that I’m not sure which section of The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 the Heyrmans were following.
Heyrman in a shovel
“The Amazing SpiderHeyrman”
It’s all very well laying out this sheet to float on the water as you would expect it to behave, but its another thing sinking it. We are now told that the technical knowledge that has gone into this, together with the geotextile trials that the Environment Agency backed, that it will be weighed down “with rocks”- what a great scientific feat of civil engineering!
It was a surprise that this material had not been sewn up by importing women from the Kidderminster carpet factories (as with the war phosphorus filling work), that’s if there are any left.
Vann Fasten- knit one
purl one
whoops, he’s dropped one
There were obvious problems with watercraft and weavework mixing.
The sheet kept getting caught in Gullit’s motors, requiring attention.
And later a comical scene of the Heyrmans getting flustered with their ends.
Still Vann fasten kept tailoring away with his work.
As the scene and the “slaag” unfolded, representatives from ERM looked on excitedly like expectant fathers, tripod and camera in hand to watch the delivery of the postal sack on the water. No doubt this is a big deal for them and no doubt it will soon materialise as an “iconic image”.
But sooo sorry to reign on your parade guys- but it’s still born. The stitch up of how to cover up toxic waste can be seen for what it is. And when the film sinks and the sand is imported, the levels of water will rise- not least due to generation of gas. It has to go somewhere, and the only way is likely to be up, along with the cappenslaag.
And then the “next step” of the deceptive illusion- “we need to import more sand to weigh it down”- and the thickos at the EA will say “yeah, no problem,”
40 lorries a day seven days a week. I don’t remember that one at the public exhibition, and quite frankly it is a joke that this operation has not needed planning permission given the amount of material being moved and imported- but under the auspices of a useless waste management licence that was never ably regulated anyway, you can pretty do whatever you like. Murder of people you may not get away with, but animals and birds- a different story.
View from a grassy knoll
thumbs down from us
When the trucks pack away, ERM disappear off back to Bristol and the Heyrmans are fixing some dyke somewhere else, we will still be here as we have always been- anonymously. The phantoms of John’s Lane, the guardians of Sandwell’s wildlife.
