What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

Let’s open door 5

AW BOMBS. A mass produced incendiary grenade by Albright and Wilson and issued to the Home Guard. Utterly unfit for purpose, these “anti-tank” weapons were discarded and forgotten, but destroyed in large quantities. They contained a mixture of phosphorus and benzene, and we know that the year of manufacture ceased when the use of Rattlechain lagoon started in 1942.

Let’s open door number 4

The Trinity Street Factory. A first and second world war Government contracted military installation, with plenty of surplus phosphorus related material to dispose of during the conflicts and of course after it. Ever since it has been the centre of its own attention in the Langley area, and its links to the rattlechain lagoon site.  There have been spills,  emissions and fires, and plenty of questions concerning the hazardous substances contained within.

Let’s open door 3

The rattlechain brickworks and its former associated abandoned claypit, which by the time of this 1950 picture was already in use for waste dumping by Albright and Wilson. The lagoon at this stage was a single pit receiving the factory waste, all unregulated- anything could be tipped there.

Let’s open door 2

White phosphorus– or P4- the highly toxic solid responsible for poisoning dozens of birds at Rattlechain lagoon. A banned rat poison and military weapon. The picture above shows a lethal adult human dose of the equivalent amount of sugar granules which would fit on the end of the Queens nose on a one pence piece- (around 50mg). For wildfowl ingesting it in the shallow sediments at the lagoon, this would be far less. Tens of tonnes of the chemical are present in the waste deposited there for over 60 years.

Let’s open door 1

Albright and Wilson’s 20th Century empire is shown in this 1950’s map of their operations. The Oldbury site saw the deposit of much of its toxic waste moved to rattlechain lagoon. The legacy of pollution from their phosphorus chemistry remains.

I used to love advent calendars as a kid. 24 doors to open and what lurks behind each door?

Those lucky folks around Trinity Street HQ get a free calendar from the company delivered through their doors, as though they own the neighbourhood that they have been polluting for years with emissions of one sort or another.

Sooooooooo….. here’s the rattlechain lagoon advent version, telling the story so far of this notorious location. We’ll be lifting the lid over the next month as to what lies beneath rattlechain lagoon, for those who are new to this website.

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.