What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

 I did have a laugh at the desperation of Rhodia/Environmental Resources Management in tonights Excess and Klaar to flog their Cappenslaag. A papier maché of the local rag would have worked out much cheaper in covering the wretched contaminated hole- good recycling too!

At What Lies Beneath Rattlechain lagoon, we attempt to tell the real truth (based on the science, not the bought kind), and the whole story behind the wildfowl deaths at Rattlechain lagoon and their confirmed exposure and poisoning by WHITE PHOSPHORUS dumped there by the chemical industry and their many apologists.  “Belief” is a concept, certainty is an art.

Until the sun sets and the course of history proves us wrong about how this cover up “clean up” ends, we will continue to leave “the pantomime shows” to Rhodia and ERM and the fairy story telling to The Wolverhampton Express and Star.

Let’s take a little journey. It’ll only take a while.

How exhausting that was.

This week has seen the convoy of trucks dispensing sand at the lagoon reaching epidemic proportions. Sometimes 3 at a time starting before 7.30 am. There haven’t been this many open backed trucks since the 40’s to destroy AW bombs! The dust is terrible and unacceptable and actually breaches the licence/permit

“condition 21

Site roads shall, when necessary , be sprayed with water to supress dust (Use of water may need Water authority approval.”

I can only advise local residents that this constitutes “a statutory nuisance” and they have every right to complain to Sandwell Council’s Environmental Health Department. So much for the frizbee monitors or whatever they are calling them- the camera doesn’t lie.

So what is the point of all this sand?

Dumped

shovelled

Minced

Pumped

Ejaculated by Goldmember

He’s been at it all week like Onan.

Spilling the seed

Mixed with water the refined sand is being spat out at a rapid rate. And so the Rattlechain lagoon cover up story continues.

My binoculars are certainly getting dusty, but the views are still pretty clear.

…and still they come….

It is clear that although the fire operation may be drawing to a close, the environmental one will continue for many days.

Yesterday the Environment Agency were out in force along the Old mainline canal near Brasshouse Lane. Water was being tested and pumping activity was clear to see. It looked a worrying situation regarding oxygen levels in the water and fish, although no bird life appears to be affected currently. Part of the problem is the policy of “dilute and disperse” as opposed to “control and contain.”

There have ben some disastrous fish kills along the BCN network in recent years, caused by fires or chemical pollution.

In 2011 several miles of canal around Wolverhampton were allowed to be polluted before common sense took hold and the canal was blocked off. I think the British Waterways policy at the time was that they did not want to upset boaters- this being one of their main revenue streams. Prior to this, the stench mongers of Greets Green known as Robinson Brothers (member of the Chemical industries association), were fined a record amount- over £400,000 for polluting the Walsall canal for several miles with thousands of fish wiped out. Once agian this situation could have been controlled if it had been contained by blocking off the canal.

I hope they do not hestitate to block off this canal to prevent any fall in oxygen levels continuing, especially given the upturn in the hot weather.

The roads are now open around the area affected, and my opinion on this matter has not changed with regard to the cause. Waste left on the ground, not what came out of the sky. Passing this site regularly, a fag end or firework over the privet hedge could have resulted in the same consequence. But blame it on the Chinese seems an easier distraction for the business community.

We hope that the EA do review their policies on the amount of waste alllowed to be stored on these type of site, and that the issue does not become one of smokescreen to protect the recycling industry, rather than the environment.

It seems that there is never a week goes by without some recycling centre fire. In the West Midlands area, we seem to have a locust infestation of these wretched places, all part of the great green recycling con job.”The black country” it seems is not so called because of its industrial past but because of its continuing present for fires of this ilk. That is because it is the toilet of the nation’s industry.

Todays was in West Bromwich on the Smethwick border, allegedly caused by “a single chinese lantern.” But hang on a minute, let’s not look at what came out of the sky and divert attention away from the site itself and what was being stored on the ground, its management risk assessment failures and those of the authorities before we look at what was the ignition source. Thousands of tonnes of plastic, cans and paper stored in bales in the open air.

View from the democratic republic of Tipton

And you could even see it from Rattlechain lagoon of all places!

A cursory look at Sandwell Council’s planning website reveals that this centre was only granted a change of use sui generis this year. Certainly it is of its own kind and let’s hope that it will not be back in use anytime in the future. We also hope that no wildlife were affected though this is as “optimistic” a hope as the Environment Agencies that it would not affect fish in the canal.

Water was being pumped from the Birmingham canal this afternoon to continue to doubt the fire. We will be monitoring the areas waterways in the coming days for any potential effects from the aftermath.

This is a result of bad planning. It is a result of poor advice from The Environment agency, the council’s environmental health department, and West Midlands fire service itself. Its frontline firefighters today are heroes; its policy and planning commentators are berks. As we have stated on this website, the planning system is rotten to the core about  these type of site, yet they get railroaded through because of the phoney green agenda that politicians and their business led chummies orgasm over. It’s all about “sustainability”- er no it’s actually about producing toxic materials in ever greater bulk because they do not want to regulate them.

“Diverting waste from landfill” is the standard bollocks they trot out to justify these places, totally uncaring that they don’t bother regulating said landfills with any concern today- ie Rattlechain lagoon.

In truth we need to reduce the consumption of, with a view to ceasing  the manufacture of plastic. “Whoah hold on a minute!” cry the fat parliamentary pigs and the porkers at the CBI, “you can’t do that it will cost jobs, it will ruin the econonmy!”- no plastic- no fires.

“we’d go back to living in the dark ages.” cry the tax dodging businessmen in their off shore safe havens, ignoring that man actually did exist before the later part of the 20th century and could go on so.

The National media were in the air, maybe they should fan the flames of questioning to Mr Nicholas Bubalo Esquire of SMBC.

Read the following from Sandwell council’s website with regard to this site application.

council report

http://planapps.sandwell.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Report-655627.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=655627&appid=&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=3

decision notice

http://planapps.sandwell.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Decision-655595.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=655595&appid=&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=11

environmental statement

http://planapps.sandwell.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Other-627652.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=627652&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1

Last week we had bales of waste in Tipton go up in smoke, a fire at Kidderminster last week also. And yet these places keep springing up. And some like the one this charlaton in Oldbury got away with are “landforms” not landfills. £1 million to remove apparently on the taxpayer and the smell is horrendous! But where were the watchdogs regulating these conmen chumps?

Find it in Sandwell

.Find it in Nelson Street.

 At the “sanctity” of the lagoon today, Goldmember had a new mojo fitted.

And Friday is “national innuendo day ” apparently, I’m sharpening my rather large pencil.

Boats on the water, slaag on the lagoon

The stitching is complete, the cappenslaag has covered the lagoon and now there is just the issue of sinking it.

At first “The H team” looked a bit baffled, or was this a company promo job?

Bonaparte attempted to do a bit of sinking with some old rubble, but not much effect.

All looked lost, blushes were as red as amorphous phosphorus, and then more trials- now which one would the local residents prefer I wonder

The giant suspended toothbrush technique, for dealing with that sticky “toothpaste”

Something completely different!

 But with a little divine intervention of heavy rain in the afternoon, and the pressing into action of Goldmember, the job appeared to be being done.

On closer inspection it appears the effort has left him losing his mojo.

Elsewhere on site there is the Klaar mincer.

And Bonaparte playing king of the castle with the growing mound of sand on the South side of the site nearest the houses.

Heyrmans POTting shed

There may have been trouble with the weed and funny odours affecting the local residents but Don’t mess with the blokes in helmets with funny accents , if you have a problem and no one else can solve it, maybe you should hire “The H team”.

After yesterdays antics, the Heyrmans have taken a leaf out of the Wimbledon court staff’s rain cover techniques.

Mini member acting as the puller and the section of suction pipe utilised as the attachment to pull the sewn up material across the water. Ingenious baggertechniekans! Most of the pool is now covered, on the surface of the water.

Rain didn’t stop play

Paddling pool for birds

On a more ominous note, the sand castles have started to arrive.

Plenty more to come, but where from?

Another mystery of this operation is Thunderbird 4. One of the first to arrive, it has done absolutley nothing but sit on the water, but now it isn’t even doing that.

Goldmember on the other hand has fallen on hard times. It may be he needs some help from “the risers from Pfizer”, given the rustyness of his prize asset, but there again you shouldn’t go dipping your wick into troubled terrain. I’d suggest a trip down the local pox clinic- I suspect a serious case of VOC.D.

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.

Dear Resident,

Suffering from dust, odours and pongs from the work at Rattlechain lagoon? You have been invited to contact the site operators or their environmental consultants, who will tell you all sorts of stories about how they are trying to minimise the impact of their works.

What they really want is your data. Your name and address, email and telephone numbers. This will make it easier for them to monitor you if you happen to be persistently troublesome to them. Take our word for it!

• DO NOT CONTACT THEM OR GIVE THEM ANY PERSONAL DATA OR HEALTH INFORMATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ABOUT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY.
• DO NOT LET THEM IN YOUR HOUSE.
• DO NOT LET THEM PUT “EQUIPMENT” IN YOUR HOUSE OR GARDEN.
• DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEM CARING ABOUT YOUR WELLBEING.

You have the legal right to make a complaint to Sandwell council’s environmental health department.

Call: 0121 569 6600

It is important to make your voice known to them and not the site operators.

Some people may remember the dire situation concerning large volumes of foundry sand being moved about on what is now known as “the mound” adjacent to Rattlechain lagoon and McDonald Close in the Temple Way area throughout the 1990’s. Many of those living there took the lull in operations as the chance to get out.

40 lorry loads -7 days a week of sand are stated to be being delivered to Rattlechain lagoon in order to weigh down the geo-textile membrane. This exceeds any previous operations at this site. They are conditioning you to what will follow in the future, should this mound ever be shifted-

THIS IS NOT ABOUT PROTECTING BIRDS- IT IS ABOUT PROTECTING THEM- AND IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

PROTECT YOURSELF- AND ALWAYS BEWARE OF GREEKS BEARING GIFTS!

It’s been a slow news week at Rattlechain lagoon and a slow work week at that. The problem is that the site is suffering from piles.

Piles of pipework on the south embankment.

Piles of wood chips and earth

Piles of rubble

Piles of soil being moved around the site

Hopefully Rhodia Solvay will be ale to fix the problem and solve the sites discomfort. There are treatments available but covering the piles over never works- they just don’t go away and the pain gets worse.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

DYLAN THOMAS.