On passing the infamous turquoise (and heavily rusted) gates to the hazardous waste lagoon in June, I had noticed that the site ID board information was missing.
An inquiry to The Environment Agency stated that they had not given permission for it to be removed and that “Rhodia” were in the process of replacing it allegedly because it was in poor condition. 🙄
“Following your email and concerns, our officers have conducted an immediate site inspection on 25 June 2021. The Environment Agency has not given permission to remove the sign. A site inspection report has been issued to the permit holders containing any a permit breach for the removal of the sign, this includes an action to replace the sign. We have spoken with the operator a temporary replacement is to be installed, while a permanent sign is made. It has been indicated by the permit holder that the sign was removed due to it being in poor state of repair. ”
So this is what then appeared, but not on the gate itself, almost as if they didn’t really want it to be noticed.
The Environmental permit number EPR/JB3909LT hides the site licensing history of the site.
The EA also stated
“There has been a company name change from Rhodia to Solvay Solutions Uk Ltd. We have received and granted a permit transfer to this new company in March 2021 under permit reference EPR/JB3909LT. For your information we have provided you a copy of this recent transfer, see attached. This includes a full status log of the permit through the years. The permit holder has not requested the site to be surrendered.
The site has a closure plan which was issued in October 2013, this sets out the sites aftercare, monitoring and maintenance. The operator does carry out regular water, gas and ground water monitoring, which they are required to submit to us. The data and results are checked for anomalies or elevated levels of certain chemicals or determinants, in order to monitor and prevent any pollution risk. ”
In response to this I would state that it has taken “Solvay Solutions UK Limited” 10 years to transfer this site to their own brand, but that the public face of this still presents the site as being owned by the entity “Rhodia Limited”.
The new permit for the site can be read below.
As for the regular gas, water sampling etc, the EA do not verify anything themselves on the ground and so how they can detect “anomalies” on the basis of this is of course an operator marking their own work. None of this data is put in the public domain by the company themselves.
Albright and Wilson-Rhodia- Solvay Solutions- all the same old same old for the same hazardous waste site and operating from the Watford address.
But “Solvay Solutions limited” however have not appeared prominently on the new yellow notice board- perhaps a very apt colour on account of the “yellow phosphorus” buried under the water and geotextile membrane.
Why the small print?
The new warning sign, (condition 31) reflects the new permit number , but gone is the link to the original site licence (SL31) which of course contains the only detail worth knowing about what chemicals had gone in there from 1978. Of course what went before that was a bloody free for all.
Perhaps Solvay Solutions UK Limited are aware that the only thing as toxic as Rattlechain Lagoon is the company association with Rhodia- which of course they were heavily fined for due to an uncontrolled release of phosphine gas.