What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

Or so the saying goes. The truth about rattlechain lagoon, its toxic contents, incompetent regulation and subsequent mis-management by Albright and Wilson/Rhodia/Solvay has been revealed on this website.

The waste tipped into the site was only licenced from 1978, but even after this, Licence SL31. allowed the toxic waste – 500 tonnes per year of waste contaminated with P4 to be dumped. The licence was a failure to control pollution, and the cretins who oversaw the waste tipping operation at West Midlands County Council allowed this company to continue in this regard. That it was poisonous waste, allowed to be dumped in the open air never appeared to cross their tiny minds.

We know as fact that this waste, and not just the waste tipped before licensing MUST have poisoned the wildfowl on the lake. How else if we are supposed to believe the Rhodia tales, were swans and even ducks able to ingest material buried several metres down underneath the “safe” calcium phosphate? We know they did ingest it because it was found inside them, they had swallowed it. We also know they were poisoned systemically– but this is a far cry away from the lies of Rhodia, that they were even trying to spin with dishonest PR journalists after the chemical had been found. Twelve wildfowl tested all found P4 in 5 different species. All were recovered from the lake, all had been poisoned there by its contents.

The last load of waste from Trinity Street was tipped in early 2006. I saw it as a primary witness. I was there. Only 8 years ago- not as some people might want to portray- many decades ago. But those at the company tell many threads of a woven story that don’t appear to fit together.

The truth about the “toothpaste” buried in the lake, appears to be an invention of one Peter Bloore, former works manager and serial Albright and Wilson delusional, but one repeated by his successors- until we proved otherwise. It’s a good story- tell people that what they are living next to is something that they put in their mouths and also give the company a bit of a boost by telling people its what they make. WELL TRY PUTTING P4 CONTAMINATED TOOTHPASTE IN YOUR MOUTHS- ANY TAKERS? I DOUBT IT.

The “good news” story that the current incarnation of this deceitful company would like to portray is one of “cleaning up” the site and undoing some of the damage that they for many years claimed to be not responsible for causing– ie a direct link between bird deaths that we exposed and reported, and the chemical shit that they produced for profit at their Trinity Street factory. It is a fact that they talked of “bird deterrence” in meetings that took place at their polluting HQ, but never the harmful waste which was to blame was discussed. Again I was there at all of these meetings.

It is also a fact that meddling EU legislation has brought about the cover up works at rattlechain last year, through the implementation of the closure plan for the site, nothing more, nothing less. It had nothing to do with Rhodia/Solvay’s altruism for doing the right thing. THEY HAD TO CLOSE THE SITE- THIS WAS THE CHEAPEST OPTION.  This EU legislation has also allowed the Environment Agency to mislead the public about what lies at the bottom of their gardens. But it should also be remembered that many also worked in the incompetent Walsall Council hazardous waste unit- that followed the WMCC regulation from 1986-1996. Their story as a different entity was just a cover one for their own backs.

The truth is also about the establishment blocking the bad things and exaggerating the past history of its war mongering in the area, and misguidedly believing that all you have to do is put out some press release and everyone will swallow the propaganda of what you are telling them. This is certainly true about “consultation zones.”

But then there is also the matter of the incompetent fools of councillors that were West Midlands County council- and what exactly they were doing at the time- we’ll save that one for another day- including those who were on that waste disposal committee back in the day- Where are they now? Hopefully most buried 6 feet under with the county waste disposal oaficer, though some it seems are unfortunately still uttering garbage.

Of course if there was anyone else there seeing the things I saw between 1999- 2013, pulling dead birds fitting from the lake after being poisoned, the hundreds of letters, phone calls made and thousands of hours spent on this- I would love to here from you before so summarily dismissing the information on this website with ill informed rhetoric that sounds like a Solvay press release.

But what of the last couple of weeks at this rotten site, where all the waste dumped there- all of it , none removed, still remains buried there as a toxic legacy?

There are now 4, yes four life rings, one for each corner of the site. When tanker drivers were dumping the waste, this didn’t appear to be such a safety issue. I’m not sure if anyone could drown in the few feet of water that now exists, on top of the toxic waste, geotextile membrane and sand, but you never know.

The road to Rattlechain… John’s Lane. A fallen tree a couple of weeks ago, as though cutting off the site even more from civilisation.

This week another obstacle at the barrier gate. This is an epidemic in the rotten borough of Sandwell, particularly in Oldbury it seems. It’s bad enough that toxic hazardous waste was legitimised by a bunch of hazbin councillors back in 1977, but this is just pure idleness of some house clearance nobhead.

I had a good rummage amongst the old bath, the bags of shoes, animal bedding etc to see if I could find any addresses that gave the dumper away. If I had, they would be posted here, along with a photograph of the house of origin.

Junk

Alas, a petrol receipt from Sainsbury’s was about the only trace.

The birds gather on the “Autcrowbase”

Has it really been seventeen years since I first set my eyes on the toxic waste operation at Rattlechain lagoon? I was only looking for some swans, it might have been better if I had never set foot done that path, but what would this site now look like, and would they still be dumping waste there?

I’ve also sometimes been challenged by those who have a vested personal interest in the site, the schemers, as to what I would do with it— this is after 60 years of toxic waste tipping long before I was born, and will still probably be there long after I am gone. I wasn’t party to the dim-witted fools on the West Midlands County Council hazardous waste committee back in 1977 who allowed Albright and Wilson a continued licence to spill. I do however know that one of them is still alive and kicking and living in Langley.

I am just a witness passing through history and chucking a few bricks into a pool. Do I have answers, feck why should I have any? I am not a scientist, I have no pecuniary interest in this site, nor do I want to use it for dumping waste into to flog the land off for housing, so a few people can be conned into buying houses on top of a toxic waste dump.

The story teller doesn’t write the script, and nor does he direct the action. His task is just to observe, record for posterity, and screw up the plans of the schemers whose task is to make people forget the story.

An observer at the lake of death

The deserted Rattlechain lagoon gates were wide open, not a soul in sight anywhere, what was going on here?

It wasn’t long before it became obvious that the arriving digger had come to carry out some excavations of the causeway path, one that has been trod of lighter tread of late by human activity.

For some time now the electrical wires have been exposed along the path from the electric house to the new pier at the other end of the site.

So just like the toxic waste the cables were sunk in trenches out of sight.

All appeared well, until a chance observation noted what looked like a king size dildo left behind on the causeway path, and attached to a string as well. SAVAGES!

More bizarrely over the weekend there had been a curious clanking buzzing noise emanating from the electric pier house. An eerie rattling of the chains?

Some form of sorbent tube here? It should be noted that they added aluminium sulphate to the smaller lagoon some time ago now supposedly to lower the ph of the water so pumping to the canal could resume. This has not happened since, with the daft water sprinkler operation turning on and off ad hoc.

In our long term monitoring of Rattlechain lagoon, (formerly known as “mere”), we have noted many a visitor into and out of the site, both animal and human, (and sometimes not quite sure.)

We have also noted several licence breaches.

Last week a curious set of open gates awaited this happy snapper as he made his way along John’s Lane. Wide open, what was going on here?

It became quickly apparent that there was no one on site. No vehicles or persons present, but there was a single swan on the lake, (damn). The most strinking thing about this abandoned Marie Celeste Scene was the trusty padlock with the iconic chain still attached. And more interesting than that, the set of keys bearing the key fob Number 10. Was there as I previously jested, a potential motel plan in the pipeline at this notorious waste tipping site?

This set of keys must by now, have a special hanging place in the Rhodia/Solvay lobby or room where they are held. It is just unusual that there wasn’t a 1 missed off the end of it, as this would make a rather good Room 101 site, for chucking everything that industry didn’t want, as well as HM GOV war materials, into the watery void below. It also made me think that every time a key holder picked up this notorious set of keys that they did so with a fear of trepidation about going there, (couldn’t think why.)

But abandonment  wasn’t a long lasting observation as a lorry trailer and new small digger aboard appeared.

Ready for action

Not long after this, another swan turned up- they’re starting to flit now in the October winds.

But what were the diggers there for at site 10…….?

Time for the gang to investigate……….

Just about the single best event of the Blair Government was The Freedom of Information Act 2000. If it wasn’t for this we would certainly be in the dark about a great deal about what has transpired at Rattlechain lagoon, and also it is unlikely that this blog would even exist.

We have learned about Albright and Wilson’s past activities, their wartime endeavours, Rhodia’s plans, Environment Agency inaction, and above all how multiple agencies appear to have conspired to try to cover up what was going on at this controversial site.

There are many others from environmental campaigning backgrounds who use the Act to try to examine what is put out into the media arena for public consumption, but more importantly they realise that much of this is only what the communications industry want people to know. The rest will be buried, and FOI is usually the only way to open the draws of an authority and have a good rummage around to find something useful, and what fun it is to fiddle them.

One particular request on the anvil has been going on now for some years. This deals with the fire that occurred at Rhodia’s Trinity Street site in January 2009. Since then they have even changed name to Solvay. As this incident was related to white phosphorus and its breakdown products, it has been something that we want to know about and look at more closely- particularly the impact that the chemicals released may have had on the environment.

SOURCE

The quest to discover the report into this , and subsequent lessons learned has now led to six requests to The Health and Safety Executive, the authority responsible in the UK for investigating industrial incidents such as this that impact on employees and the public.

This week we got a reply to request number 6, which revealed that they still have not got around to making any decision as to whether to prosecute the company, though they have after over 5 years now completed their investigation. Once again we will have to submit another request in a few months time, but perhaps by then we will know a little more.

The truth is certainly out there, and we will in the course of time get there in the end.

Well Autumn arrived today after one of the driest Septembers on record. A stark contrast to the last 30 days or so. It was blowing a gale this morning around Tividale and the puddles were forming around the John’s Lane area.

Flooded Lane John

Rain on the lens!

It used to be the case that you could gauge the water levels by the dividing causeway path, but after last years tinkering it’s more difficult. I would estimate however as a long time visitor that the levels are at their lowest for some years. The re-profiled path is much broader than the old one, but the raising of the sediments via the geotextile and the sand added have resulted in less water in the main lagoon than ever before.

ruddy weather

The best indicator of the plunging levels is offered by the newest feature at the beleaguered site- the rattlechain pier, still firing water cannon at seagulls from the smaller uncapped contaminated lagoon.

The following is a comparison taken from April/May just this year, which shows just how the conniving froggies at Trinity Street have allowed the smaller lagoon to empty- but for what purpose?

April 19th 2014

Today

Couldn’t see “the colander” back in May

Why let it go low?

The North embankment area has started to form a shingle beachy area, and it can also be seen how the levels have declined at the edge to reveal the sandy underbelly.

Sunny days

Come again another day- overgrowth

Yahhh it’s on again.

And so back to rattlechain lagoon. It has predictably been very quiet now for some time, but the watch goes on there every day. Birds observed in far less numbers than ever before after nearly a year after the main water “improvement” works were drawing to a close. Not much to show that anything had ever taken place there with the growth of vegetation, except the removal of the waste pipe and pontoons, which was always part of the fallacy that it had somehow been “cleaned up”. I had to do a double take at The Sandwell show recently when a familiar structure appeared like a cream Tardis on the showground.

Now where have I seen that before?

Oh I remember now.

The hosepipe that has been connected to the new pier has now been turned off.

There is still no explanation for this bizarre spectacle, though it is apparent that the water levels in both lagoons have dropped substantially. There is probably less water in the main lagoon than has ever been in there since waste tipping started. It is evident to see from the way in which birds walk on the sandy deposits that the North side embankment blends into the lake where once reed beds stood.

A couple of swans dropped in over the last week, but didn’t stay very long. This appears typical of most birds at the site, which is odd given the lack of disturbance there.

Some of surviving geese that Sandwell council didn’t kill also turn up, but mainly the seagulls are the sole occupiers now.

The relayed causeway path, now wider than in the latter waste tipping days, when it frequently breached, is now more like it was in the mid 1960’s. It is also starting to green up as before.

All very nice to the eye, as before, so no-one knows about what is covered up there and what lies beneath.

A few weeks ago I noticed some disturbances at Rhodia/Solvay’s still controlled Gower Tip. Though my canalside view was limited, it was clear that behind the trees there had been some excavations taking place within the site, and clearly this had exposed some of the previously tipped waste there.

What was this I thought, this site was officially a closed site, and the licence issued in 1978 had been surrendered according to Sandwell council and the Environment agency. It was obvious that something was afoot, and then I saw a couple of site occupants dressed in the colours of Solvay’s environmental consultants at Rattlechain, ERM.

Monitoring at the Gower?

So it was time to hit the streets and have a look around the rest of the visible parts of the site. From George Wood Avenue it was clear that new site boreholes were being installed- but why after all this time- a bit bloody late given that new houses are currently being built at “The Forge” right next to the site!

A cleared pathway

Around the dug parts of the site, a white ugly mixture was visible from beneath the soil. So what exactly was exposed here, and what justification allowed this- given that this site is supposed to offer no threat?

Another exposed bottle

The fenceline at the tip can be seen in context with the area of houses yet to be built. It seems to me reading between the lines that some of the content on this website may have resulted in some rather uncomfortable questions being asked by the developers and those living around the area. Perhaps this map had something to do with it, given the questions around the historic boundary of where tipping took place? No doubt we will get yet another whitewash report about human health, but the proof will be not in the soil tests or monitoring but in 25 years time when people start asking questions as to whether health concerns they have, are anything to do with that old piece of fenced off land that no-one knows much about, and cannot find out much about from Environment agency records, or those held by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

New occupants will be able to look down on the historic waste dump at the bottom of their gardens. Just look out for the fairies with the multiple limbs and two heads