What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

It’s like setting your own questions for an exam and then getting someone else to mark it. Rhodia/Solvay “prepare” the site, invite ERM et al onto site to “monitor” the site, then ERM et al report back to Rhodia/Solvay who know what they will find, who then pass on their findings to The Environment Agency who take no action, and do not monitor anything themselves. Got that, good because this is the dodgy goings on that are no doubt going on at many hazardous waste sites and development sites across the country.

I suppose I should have guessed that the hosepipe and water shifting between the two lagoons was for the purpose of the 6 month “monitoring” that would be undertaken since the official but unofficial finish of the works. And so it was that suspicious activity on the site, (which has been going on since 1942 lets face it) saw new pieces of machinery arrive on site at the end of last week, as well as some familiar old faces…..

“Yellow fever” arrives at Rattlechain lagoon

“smallpox” ready for action.

ERM and dusty bin

Hoorah! The Heyrmans are back again!

More hard labour ahead for our intrepid Belgian heroes

An AW bomb on a stick

Spotted the monitor, wonder if the battery was charged?

Security fence pretty pup, but fixed now.

It appears to be a case of general tarting up the site. Adding some grass seed onto the bare patches and adding more bricks to cover over the exposed geotextile areas.

Yellow fever and smallpox at work on the North embankment

 But not only were areas reseeded by the Heyrmans, but smallpox and yellow fever were also deployed to lay more bricks around the edges of the lake. There is subtle but slow infilling going on here. They hope no-one will notice, but these eyes are not easily fooled- they should know that by now.

bricks under the pier

By the end of the week it was quite clear that whilst the contractors and monitors were on site, the bubbles of gas coming to the surface were unmistakably being given off in multiple areas in the main lagoon, especially towards the far North East side lake. And so to combat this the hosepipe appears to have been moved further into this area in an attempt to disguise the eruptions from below. A case of trying to hide what lies beneath with a fountain of what lies above.

“It wasn’t me that moved it”

Pondering WHAT LIES BENEATH RATTLECHAIN LAGOON?

Easter time is supposed to be a time of renewal and regeneration.

The hatchlings are now starting to appear. I saw the first family of canada’s yesterday whilst out and about.

At Rattlechain over the last week a hosepipe has suddenly been turned on from the new pier pump.

It appears that water is being emptied from the smaller lagoon ( that recently underwent an aluminium sulphate dumping session ) and into the main geotextile laid lagoon. WHY? Is the larger lagoon now considered to have too high a ph? And why would that be the case? Or is the smaller lagoon now too acidic? A case of conjuring water from one side to the other, whilst trying to hide the chemicals added.

The bubbles of gas are still visibly being given off in the larger capped lagoon, so I wonder if this is just an attempt to try to disguise it?

The lowering water levels can be gauged by the plunging mark on the pier.

As for the birds, let’s hope that they cannot access anything that lingers below, after all the point of not capping the smaller lagoon was supposedly that the birds would not be able to reach anything in this lagoon.

There is also the question of the disappearing bowsers stored at the southern end near to the houses. Three now remain. Iwonder if they hatched? Perhaps another experiment going on here?

6 shown here

On Monday there was an early morning appearance of 7 greylags, which presumably came in with the rain the night before. Ghostly grey shapes across the foggy abyss at the toxic waste dump. By dinner with the fog gone, so had they. Wise move chaps.

Greylags in the mist

And so to the landmark 100th post on this blog. As stated several times, this website was set up initially to put forward our point of view that was not being reported widely, on an issue that was both personal and prolonged because of business lies backed up by regulator incompetence and bureaucracy. We are sure that this is just one of many examples of how the chemical industry has managed to gain in stature at the expense of the environment and which there appears to be no end to how its toxic legacy can be covered up.

The victims of industrial pollution can be animals, birds as well as humans. In their time, Albright and Wilson poisoned them all and left behind a gift for the future which also made the future the biggest victim of all. But they were just one of many private companies backed up by odious Governments and politicians with financial and political mineral grabing intent. And still their phoney wars continue……

It can also be said from someone of “today’s generation” that there is little to thank the post war generation for in terms of how they appeared too busy celebrating the peace of World War Two to care about dumping thousands of tonnes of nerve and chemical weapons into the sea for “safety”, whilst collaborating on more ghastly experiments in secret to wipe out mankind and life many times over, simply because “the other side” may find it first.  NO -YOU DESERVE NO “THANKYOU” AT ALL. YOU DESERVE UTTER CONTEMPT, AND AS THE HISTORY BOOKS SWAY OUT OF YOUR CONTROL YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY TOMORROW FOR RUINING OUR TODAY FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE OF YESTERDAY.

Whilst the world engages in so called “climate change” speculation, the real time victims of industrial pollution like those at Rattlechain slip unseen by the wayside unreported. The top table environmental organisations like the top table animal organisations were not interested in our struggle or in rattlechain lagoon itself. So it was left to ourselves alone to try to investigate it on behalf of the bird victims. They want your money to continue their admin jobs; there are no donate pages on this website.

  “Lie-met change”  describes how university academics can be paid their entire lives to produce research backed and taxpayer funded by western governments to use as the manipulative tool to prevent Eastern industrial expansion. This money could clean up  contaminated sites like rattlechain many many times over, yet these university parasites keep feeding off us like vermin with their puppet masters never stopping their supply of carrots.

Environmental organisations no longer speak out about atrocities such as those committed by BP, such is their vain obsession with their “climate change” religion- playing right into the hands of the political class again. We now have “the Department for energy and climate change”- thus linking the climate lie with the energy lie. It is hard to see how so many people are so gullible in believing what politicians and scientists tell them is right, but with so many believing in God and religion, perhaps it is not that hard to see a different set of words and prophets of doom. I call the lot a mental health issue.

The environmental movement has lost its way since 2000, at end of millenium paranoia set in, backed up by Hollywood Movies that were always part of the Western conspiracy plot to maintain a public perception that the world would end from manmade activity.  Climate change and Nostradamus go hand in hand with the theory changing only when “an event” occurs. The mass media presentation, also in the loop of deceipt complete the production. So now they all look to weather satellites and the clouds and to scientists, too busy noticing acid spills and oil on the beaches, chemical emissions in the water or the air. I remember when Greenpeace prosecuted Albright and Wilson at Whitehaven and stopped their polluting activities with direct action!

The world will not end from industrial pollution, but it will produce victims whilst the lie-met mob continue their self promoted importance and the scientists , businessmen and politicians smile on counting their currency in GM crops and windfarming  technologies. You don’t have to look very far into who bankroles presidential campaigns. They are happy to promote artificial life instead of improving life for us all, and carving a career on the after dinner speach circuit to anyone who will listen.

 From those who controlled the waste dumping  situation from their ivory tower at Trinity Street and WD24 4QP, not and ever a single apology nor expression of remorse for our real victims of industrial pollution. Only a cover up with sand to bury their heads in.

It only comes as some warped personal pleasure to this writer that he will outlive some of the main protagonists long enough to water the knotweed around the headstones bearing their names. 

The word ameriolation does not really apply to the rattlechain site, because it has not really healed. Whereas we wanted the toxic threat to be removed forever to produce no more victims, what we have is a puncture patch stuck over a gaping wound, in the hope that it will not blow out and last the journey, whereby it is hoped that time will forget what lay beneath the water.

We remember the many swans and other birds, some which we had followed since hatching and remember how their lives were cut short by the Oldbury chemical companies waste and lies. Many could have been avoided, which makes it all the worse to bare, as was the slowness at which we discovered the truth that we now know.

This video and song are an apt conclusion for this post. Someday I might even get round to doing my own take.

For the victims…….

THE EXCESS & TAR       1st April 2014

Farting frogs to blame for lagoon “gas”

By Ross Socrates

The cause of bubbling gas at a controversial waste disposal site was today revealed to be being caused by flatulating frogs. Local residents and the campaign group Sandwell Swanwatch had raised concerns at bubbles of gas rising to the surface of the Rattlechain lagoon in Tividale, which underwent remedial works last year “to make it safe for wildfowl.”

The lagoon contains white phosphorus, which is toxic and the deaths of dozens of birds were blamed by ingesting the chemical. Spokesman for swanwatch Ian Carroll  said,

” We were concerned about gas being visibly evolved from the lagoon which we recorded on video. We were convinced that this was phosphine gas being evolved at the site due to the nature of the waste being stored there, and also after being in contact with experts in the US who have dealt with similar sites. I was sure that the smell of rotting fish, garlic and onions was coming from the lagoon. However now that I have seen Rhodia/Solvay’s extensive research, I am convinced that the cause of the gas is coming from the frogs at the lagoon.” he added.

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Belgian company Solvay, who own the pool, commissioned 10 environmental consultants, the RSPCA, the WWF, The Environment Agency, Sandwell council environmental health, Public Health England, Defra, Esther Rantzen and former MP Lembit Opik to investigate the claims of gas being evolved. A company spokeman today commented;

“Naturally we too were concerned at the gas being evolved from the lagoon and the concern expressed by local residents. We took water and ambient air samples and are pleased to confirm that the results and conclusions from our independent consultants express the view that the flatulence from the frogs at the site pose no human health risks. Analysis was conducted using “UK best practice” and samples were sent to accredited laboratories for analysis.”

The breakthrough at the site apparently came when the record “We all stand together” by Paul McCartney was played nonstop during daylight hours, with the gassing amphibians joining in the chorus. In addition to the frogs, the odours from 5 toads, 3 sticklebacks and a housesparrow were detected.

The small silent ones are the deadliest

A collection of the avian funny ha-ha and the funny peculiar.

There is nothing more fascinating for this bird lover than watching what these creatures make of the world filled with human junk. They take our food, scraps and nuts from tables and off the ground to survive. They acquire materials to nest with that have been thrown away in idle haste. And they can also just be plain mischievous. Take this crow on the John’s Lane path next to rattlechain.

Hello

 A few bricks to pick up and rearrange.

 And how about a “no entry sign” to tidy up.

 Coots are particularly good at collecting piles of rubbish to build nests. They also like to rest on debris in the water.

The survivors

Men at work, coots at rest

 By far the most dangerous of wild birds to handle, in the UK at least is the grey heron. I have had a couple of encounters. It is like a pair of scissors coming at your eyes, supposedly because they strike at the shiniest thing that they see. They make good use of the large pincers. I saw one once swallow a live rat whole. Most of the time it is fish. A knife and fork would be easier.

And of course I have a particular interest in swans. I have never seen one “mate for life”, “break a person’s arm”, or “pine to death” when their mate dies. THESE ARE ALL URBAN MYTHS. What I have directly observed are female swans swapping mates to hold onto their nesting territory when a stronger male comes along. And the level of incest amongst “pairs” which consist of sons and mothers, fathers and daughters and siblings make the Quakers family trees look uncomplicated. The  male swan below was well known in the area for building two nests. One for his “wife” and another one for one of his previous “daughters.” Both bred that particular year leading to an uneasy squabbling between the two females before an ordered collective was established.

I have also seen the result of two pairs of swans coming together. One pair had 4 cygnets, the other 8. On one visit to the canal in question, I saw the pair with 8 had suddenly appeared to have lost them all. Carrying on further imagine the surprise when all 12 cygnets were with the other pair! The 8 were slightly bigger than the existing 4 as they were slightly older but it was quite apparent that the adults could not count, and they went on to rear them all as their own. These type of observations don’t appear in the official documentaries or published research, but they are real observations.

One bizarre thing that is true is how territorial swans are in relation to other wildfowl. Despite lovingly tending to their young, letting them ride on their backs and teaching them to fly, come the new spring or even before they turn on them with an effortless flick of a switch.

 It’s usually males that do the attacking, but in this case the female was particularly being the more agressive- perhaps indicating that the cygnet in question was another female she saw as a threat.

Mrs Vicious Bastard sticks the boot in.

This male swan is convinced that a love rival is starring back at him from inside a parallel world on the other side of the building.

 For hours he will look at himself in the glass biting his own reflection which also “bites back.”

“I thought one male was bad enough.”

 During times of hardship in Winter, all the birds come together in a huddle in the available unfrozen water. But sometimes it helps to get a ride from a bigger bird.

“Next stop please.”

A significant sighting this week at rattlechain lagoon- a dead seagull on the causeway path. There isn’t too much one can draw from this, but it has been noted nonetheless.

black headed possibly?

Bird numbers, as we have commented on this blog before are now miniscule compared to the pre works of last year. There remains no explanation as to why those birds which we are supposed to believe left the site of their own free will have not returned, and equally why they have not been noted to have arrived anywhere else in the numbers that departed.

60+ coot pre February 2103 -now lucky to see 3.

Moorhen in the dozens pre February 2013, ditto for coot.

Swans always came and went (if they were not lifted off there before or died from p4 poisoning which the company tried to cover up) in sporadic numbers.

Canada geese- always usually roosting at the site at night and flying out each morning. This is still occurring- but again in far less numbers than before. 50+ were typically present on the site pre 2013 works.

Mallard numbers are also well down on previous spring counts. I have seen a maximum of 12 this year, though this is usually less during the bulk of the day.

Other visitors such as tufted duck occasionally appear.

There are a pair of little grebe on the site currently.

The only real survivors appear to be the crows on the North embankment, and assorted species of seagull which occupy the causeway path.

It is good news that less birds are visting this hazardous waste site- amen to that, don’t get me wrong- but where did they all go- on that I am a little more suspicious. And more importantly no conclusions can be drawn about the “success” of the capping works regarding fewer observed dead birds at the site- which no doubt the site owners and their backers (with the silent F) would like people to believe is the case.

The rather deserted Rattlechain lagoon this week-a place where nothing wants to live

DOWN BELOW THE STREETS AND HOUSES,

RATTLECHAIN LAGOON

EVERYONE CAN SEE IT’S GASSING

WE’LL POST A VIDEO SOON

RAT -0-0 –LE -0-0-CHAIN -0-0- PH3 -0-0-PHOSPHINE.

READ PART 4 OF “HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE THE MERE?” OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE HEALTH PROTECTION AGENCIES “HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT HERE.

Poor Langley! What did it ever do to deserve so many chemical factories? A sort of overexercised fat woman’s armpit sticking out of Oldbury with a brew of  beetroot and cabbage soup- AND DON’T FORGET THE TOMCAT PISS FROM ALBRIGHT AND WILSON.

You can look back with marvel and wonder at the chemical entrepreneurs and their “achievements” ,but when all is said done and written, what it all really comes down to is the toil of people who gave their blood, sweat and tears for making a very few families a pile of dough, who could then live in splendid isolation away from the industrial filth that made them rich and made their workers die younger than them. 

There are some who waffle on about how wonderful industrial heritage is, yet they don’t appear to talk about their fathers dying of cancer, heart attacks and strokes before the age of 60- perhaps they couldn’t see the link before blindly following in their footsteps.

The sons and daughters of Langley played their part, but when you take a look at the area today certainly some of it resembles Damascus on a bad day. Prosperity- where is it? One of the most iconic buildings in the area are the former Langley Maltings, situated adjacent to The Titford Canal and Western Road.  There’s some good urban exploration about the history of this site which was largely gutted by fire in September 2009 which can be read HERE.

The “bomb damaged” maltings as viewed from Western Road.

view from the cut

 There’s even an old bath in the canal.

 Unfortunately this building although iconic is now nothing but an abysmal blot on the landscape, and though Grade II listed, one has to wonder what purpose it serves in its current state. Does the area need a monument to beer making, when under the canal bridges you find pissheads and other such lowlifes blighting the area? If it is not to be restored (again), then it should be demolished before any more of it falls down, or before some bright spark decides on a phoney “restoration” to turn it into another 3 storey apartment block bolt hole for Poles.

The Maltings, attracting flytipping which is a problem that shames the Black Country. In the distance looms the chimney of Rhodia/Solvay.

 The dereliction continues onto Station Road with another of those fading institutions, the English public house. This one was called “The bridge” as its last incarnation, but only a structure going to nowhere. The top half has now gone and lies in rubble.

 And then Mill Street with its piles of bricks scattered like large lego. Two signs spell “OUT”,  but who would ever want to enter there in the first place?

There has been much debate as to who “uncle ben” actually was on this canal bridge named after him- Perhaps Stan Lee might have visited the area once and been inspired to name a character?

 On the Titford canal itself you get a few ducks and geese, but knowing from experience, this is one of the worst in Sandwell for vandalism towards birds. The further you go towards Whiteheath, the more council estate scum you will find loitering about. The M5 motorway providing a hangar for illiterate garbage underneath, usually with a rod in one hand and a cannabis joint in the other- and don’t forget to take your dangerous dog fishing with you, to make you look even more like a chav.

 “Langley village ” itself is more respectable, but looming over it , the chemical works of Trinity street. “At the heart” of the local community, perhaps in much need of  triple bypass surgery.

And a park opened in August 1886 which good old Arthur Albright donated, with another park house clock tower- they did seems to like those in Victorian days didn’t they?

 A touching tribute perhaps added when the old fella croaked it in 1900?

Today the parkhouse serves as a community centre, and is home of “The Sandwell Irish Society”. It is highly likely that many from Ireland settled in the area at the prospect of bettering their lives, but at what cost?

A letter from W.B.Albright, his Grandson  dated 14th May 1942 to T.N Blockley  of the Ministry of Supply concerning labour for the factory states;

“”We have been advised by the labour people that we can obtain 20 men from Ireland in the course of the next two months if we put down £70 for expenses. This we are doing. It seems to me that this is rather buying a pig in the poke, but under the existing circumstances one rather clutches at straws.”

Yes you don’t find such a description in the company biography “100 years of phosphorus making” by R.E Threlfall. What you do find from page 242 onwards is an epitaph on the Oldbury firms centenery “celebrations.”

“On 11 April, 1951, the company gave a dinner at The Savoy hotel, London to over 400 guets. The Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden, P.C, MP, Chancellor of Birmingham University, proposed the health of the company and the cahirman replied. The managing director proposed”The guests”, and replies were made by Sir Wallace Akers of I.C.I, and by Edward O’Neal, of Monsanto Chemicals Limited. From Niagra Falls the company welcomed Walter Wallace, M.B Geiger and Earl Whitford; from Buckingham, Fred J. Hambly and R.Bruce Walker; and from Ireland Norman Goodbody.”

It seems the Langley farmyard was not good enough for them.

As a fairly smallish swan rescue organisation, over the years we have none the less dealt with the full range of usual swan related problems, as well as the unique UK situation of white phosphorus poisoning at Rattlechain lagoon.

There are the usual plethora of angling issues that could have been avoided, powerline strikes, dog attacks, as well as wanton vandalism.

One of the oddist cases in recent times involved a report of a swan that had got “a sandwich bag label” in its mouth. To set the scene, there are several pools in the multi cultural borough of Sandwell, of varying cleanliness and civic pride, and knowing this one, if chappati chucking were an Olympic sport, then there would be considerable local Great British success.  Sandwell council likes to boast about the number of Green flags awarded at its sites by Keep Britain Tidy, though you can sometimes wonder if the white stripe, crescent moon and star had been inadvertently missed off the design before being hoisted based on the culinary garnishes at lakeside.

Anyway, the swan. It soon became apparent that “the sandwich bag label” was in fact, a clothing label. Someone somewhere was missing the small fairly useless itch patch off their y fronts or knickers. I was fairly confident that the bird had not swallowed the whole garment! The cotton part of the attachment had been swallowed forming what is called in the wildfowl rescue trade “a chin strap”. This is when a bird swallows fishing line, but sometimes string or nylon and both ends go down the gullet leaving a loop under the chin. This will eventually get tighter and tighter cutting into the mandible to the point where it would ultimately sever the beak off. It would also block the passage of food and birds could die from starvation.

In this case the line had been swallowed leaving the label sticking out under the chin. On catching it, I was able to remove the cotton string which had on the end of it a large glut of weed and food that could not be swallowed. On examining the faded label which gave instruction on how I could have machine washed the hapless creature, I turned the other side and after initially thinking out loud “bloody typical” , could not help sensing some form of amusement from the situation as the bird was released unharmed to carry on with the bargie bonanza on offer that day. “MADE IN BANGLADESH”- Always read the label.

“ABDUL” THE SWAN, AND A FRIEND

 “THEY’RE BAAA-AAACK.”

Yes, the Belgian boys are back in Oldbury town, or at least they were for a few days this week- their mission – and they chose to accept it- to dump some aluminium sulphate into the supposed “clean side” lagoon as Rhodia and their regulator The Environment Agency liked to call it back in the day. Obviously no one at Rhodia wants to be seen to be dumping anything into the site- so get a contractor to do it for you.

All this- we are supposed to believe- and we obviously do not because what this company say at face value is worthless, is that the ph level in this pool alone (not the larger one that they were messing about with last year to cover up their mess) is now above the level accepted by the EA for discharge to The Birmingham Canal. But hang on a mo- how did this suddenly happen? With ph7 neutral, ph 10 was the consent limit set in the discharge consent.

 And so our intrepid heros- (including my favourite Heyrman with the glasses) were tasked with “bath salt dumping.” I was half expecting Robert Tyler or even Monsieur Clamadieu to turn up for a quick dip, just to show that the pool was now “safe” ,but perhaps the weather was a bit too cold.  But it was quite apparent, even reading safety data sheets on Aluminium sulphate that this chemical “used in water treatment works” is certainly not at all “safe”. Though they may claim to have monitored the aluminium levels this is just another example of adding a chemical to try to disguise or remove another one. And obviously, the Heyrman guneia pigs knew this and had been told.  

If these were action figures they would be “Heyrman De Roeck operative (fluorescent Gimp disguise outfit)”

Gentlemen, start your engines

 The water was extremely choppy, and a quick inspection led to another unforseen problem.

hat overboard

Not put back on head- I wonder why ?

Aluminium sulphate was previously used in the removal of white phosphorus and other heavy metal contaminants in trials conducted in World war two. We have looked at this previously HERE.

This smaller subsidiary lagoon was never decontaminated during the 2013 works, not capped (without any plausible explanation given as to why not), and is now undisputedly known to have been created out of the original fully contaminated and pre-licensed tip. So of course, it is still contaminated.

 The pallet of chemicals also seemed to contain more than just aluminium sulphate however.

Iron iii oxide?

It was looking like the pools would be reunited again, but obviously the contrived chemical cosh obviously allowed discharge to the canal to resume.

Several documents were released last week by the environment agency concerning the closure of the site, but it seems that the majority of the licence conditions remain. 3_6_Rhodia Limited Permit

We will look at these shortly. If you have a complaint to make about the way in which decisions are made at your local hazardous waste site, then don’t bother to contact The National Environment agency team, who are obviously far too busy and too important  to answer questions from plebs. I wonder if they also think that phosphine is “marsh gas” and that white phosphorus isn’t toxic? The hurried rush job to formerly close this site under the pretense that it had something to do with poisoning wildfowl that both regulator and regulated were unified in dismissing with contempt shows that there are many people in their employ who have hindsight but never foresight.

The environment agency- Allowing toxic chemicals to be dumped in the environment, and it seems like they are creating only a bitter place.