This afternoon saw the devastation of the North embankment reedbed by a digger on a spud barge. The aftermath looked like a tsunami had hit rattlechain lagoon with vegetative debris scattered everywhere. In addition some of the barrels that got away when Rhodia attached them to deter birds from landing on the lagoon, but couldn’t be bothered to collect up over the last 10 years were scooped up.
There was nothing careful about this exercise, it was just random dredging and for all the talk of the geophysical analysis that had taken place to locate metal objects in the sediment according to ERM at the public exhibition, what a crock. One metal barrel in particular appeared to be from the Albright and Wilson era, where they used to be sunk sometimes by rifle fire or just rolled over the embankment into the water- no characterisation of what they contained. This appeared to contain packaging, some of it in bin liners- but who knows?
Decades of toxic waste containing white phosphorus were being churned up which was completely avoidable. To make matters worse, when the barge had left the scene birds returned to feed on the newly poisoned chalice.
Whilst carefully positioned operatives stood taking pictures on the East embankment, no doubt for the next PR leaflet, the spudbarge returned to the causeway path, to unload the barrelled cargo. I suppose when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, even if there are portocabin toilets just a few yards away. Or perhaps the driver was “using his initiative” to hose down any traces of white phosphorus that may have been on the spud barge.
Oui Monsieur?
They say Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus from urine after all.