POST 500 A MILESTONE MOMENT.
For this 500th post, I wanted to capture the essence of why I started this blog, to tell the story of the victims of industrial pollution.
A very interesting find from the Dave Bagnall archive/Midlands Aerial pictures via Alamy Stock photos shows three aerial shots of Rattlechain Lagoon and immediate surroundings taken apparently on 18th April 2005. This was a time of sheer hell for me personally with this site and in the timeline context it was six years after I had first noticed dead birds appearing on the lake, and it would be another four years before the first confirmed birds that had been poisoned with white phosphorus. ALL OF THEM HAD BEEN POISONED BY THIS CHEMICAL AFTER BEING DUMPED IN THIS LAGOON OF COURSE. AT THIS TIME, WASTE WAS STILL BEING DUMPED INTO THIS LAKE BY ROAD TANKER FROM TRINITY STREET.
In between these desolate years, there were many meetings at Trinity Street, many times I had to pull dead birds out of the water or call Rhodia to chase off swans that had landed on there or retrieve dead ones that had died within hours of landing on the lake, perfectly well before they did so. There were also many vaults over that fence to catch and save ones before they died, and I have no doubt that we saved countless lives after liberating them from this poison avian graveyard. I regret nothing.
Countless phone calls to useless quangos, trips down the M5 to Wychbold Swan rescue that would be fruitless because they were already dead after ingesting this hideous poison, but that was before we had confirmation of what was really happening, which of course, the site owners were well aware of or suspected all along. How could they really not?
This has been described by some as a “David and Goliath battle”, and I am proud of that, and that I have probably cost this multinational well over a million pounds in dealing with reporting the truth like my fictional hero.
The three photographs show many interesting things from an aerial birds eye perspective which I will look at in detail. I should add that I have paid for these licences to use so they are not to be reproduced without the permission and credit of the copyright holders.
2YNDRC7 Aerial view of white phosphorus chemical waste disposal in Rattlechain Lagoon, St John’s Lane, Tividale, Sandwell, England, Britain, Uk
OBSERVATIONS AND LINKS
THE LAGOON
The lagoon looking South, main lagoon and connected subsidiary lagoon to the right dominate the picture. You can clearly see the waste island in the centre of the shot and this would be a frequent death trap for birds sinking into the quicksand waste after being poisoned. The long pipe from the edge of the path jutted out like a supergun set in pontoons painted turquoise with some faded and corroded. These pontoons would see some birds ironically nesting on top of them, in relative “safety” away from the waste including common terns. Attached to the end of this at this time was an extendable nozzle as it appeared that the Environment Agency had told Rhodia to spread out the waste so it was beneath the surface- hence would not catch fire as it evidentially had done on several occasions. This appears to have been all the EA cared about- the toxicity of what was in there they didn’t!
On the left of the picture is the abandoned secondary and original pipe in an area known as “the beach”. This would be the scene of the 1989 fire where a tanker driver rolled barrels into the water which then dried out and caught fire- thrusting the spotlight on the site to local residents of Temple Way as it then stood.
The causeway path dividing the lagoons was a manmade 1960’s construction which can be evidenced by historic photographs and created for the purpose of heightening the water due to the increased depth of the waste being dumped by Albright and Wilson. We know this by historic correspondence with British Waterways who also used it as a dredging tip.
Along the length of this path was another long pipe connected to the pumphouse, seen as a black shed in this photo where this would stretch up the steep Northern embankment and out via a pipe into The Birmingham Mainline Canal via a dubious discharge consent. The EA later revealed that that could not test the water that came out of the lagoon for white phosphorus content. The preposterous concept was that water pumped from this so called “clean side” lagoon was clean. IT WAS NOT BY VIRTUE OF THE FACT THAT THIS SIDE HAD ALSO BEEN USED AS A DUMP WHEN ORIGINALLY ONE SINGLE PIT. LATER TESTS ON THE SEDIMENT IN THIS SIDE WOULD CONFIRM THE PRESENCE OF WHITE PHOSPHORUS- THUS MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE ENTIRE OPERATION THAT THIS DISPOSAL SITE HAD BEEN SET UP FOR.
At this point, the panelled concrete fence line stretched around the entire circumference of the site. These panels often broke and had access onto the site.
You can make out the blue empty barrels stretched across the lagoons that had been the brainchild of Rhodia to stop the swans landing. Of course, this didn’t work and so this was later abandoned in favour of a speed boat where the occupants would chase the swans away banging a stick on the boat. Of course, at this time, this company were still denying that there was anything harmful in the lake. 😡
Vegetation and a dense canopy of trees are present on the North and South embankments. The North embankment would also have a trough valley where the former waste disposal pipe from the canal would run. The canal can be seen clearly in the foreground.
THE FORMER SEWAGE WORKS.
By this point, Mintworth had largely finished their operations on this site and adjoining land. The sewage works infrastructure is gone and the site has been levelled awaiting the building of 100 houses passed on appeal where SMBC had objected but been overruled by a Bristol based inspector. This of course would be described as “a crap site for residential” by a principle SMBC planning officer in respect of its proximity to the lagoon.
What I do not remember but see in this photo is that the embankment of imported sand encroaches into the Rhodia site to form a new surface, and I have to wonder if this operation resulted in some disturbance of materials from the hazardous waste landfill back into the housing development site? A fence line is apparent, but in truth before this I remember a very rickety chain link fence, that you could walk through to get from one area into another. A site office appears to be being set up off Temple way onto the site.
The houses would of course become Callaghan and Wilson Drives.
The greened plateaux overlooking the lagoon is notable. In just five years, Mintworth agents would return to carry out a metal tatting exercise turning it black once again.
THE AUTOBASE SITE
By this time, no cars were being stored in here, but shipping containers. I do not know what was within them, but the whole set up seemed ropey with the comings and goings.
2YNDRC5 Aerial view of white phosphorus chemical waste disposal in Rattlechain Lagoon, St John’s Lane, Tividale, Sandwell, England, Britain, Uk
A closer view of the site is shown in this picture. There is not much more to add, except that I can see that the pump to the canal was on this day as evidenced by the outflow into the canal. If you zoom in, you can identify the outlet point from the white frothy outpouring.
BR7P51 Aerial view of white phosphorus chemical waste disposal in Rattlechain Lagoon, St John’s Lane, Tividale, Sandwell, England, Britain, Uk
This is the money shot. You can clearly see the difference in colour between the two lagoons. The Mediterranean blue lagoon may not be as bright as it had in previous decades, but it is still phosphorescent in glow here. More detail of the concrete fence is visible as is the sandy bank that has blurred the lines of the former sewage works boundary. That waste island is terrible, and one wonders why the environment agency did not put up helicopters of their own to view such sites from above, Certainly their observations at ground level as I am all too aware were fucking shite and not at all the ones of a competent regulator who knew what was going on, and could not see that birds were being poisoned!
All I got at this stage were there was no proof the birds had been poisoned, and that it was a hazardous waste lagoon and not a nature reserve. Tell that to the birds travelling between the adjacent Sheepwash Local nature Reserve and this chemical poison toilet. The lack of signage would be visible to humans however just a couple of years later when the houses were being marketed by Barratt homes. There was no coincidence here, and a whole new set of residents would later learn that the description of this site is more in keeping with the tags the photographer made when taking the shots. “POISON”
The barrels that were used to stop birds landing would be stashed on the side of the lake, and then catch fire after the sediment on them had dried out. Rhodia had excuses for everything of course, but like all truths, eventually it comes to the surface to suffocate those who would gaslight us with absurdities.
THIS IS NOT A SITE FOR NEW HOMES NOW OR EVER IN THE FUTURE, IT IS THE LEGACY OF THE 20TH CENTURY AND ITS LUDICROUS AND DANGEROUS BURYING OF TOXIC POISONOUS WASTE. SHAME ON ALL OF THOSE WHO PLAYED A PART IN THIS- YOUR LEGACY HAS BEEN UNCOVERED.