A fire has been burning deep in Mont Cuet for three years. Now Public Services is considering seeking an increase in the leachate level as a way of putting it out. (Picture by Brian Green, 0592142)
PUBLIC Services is considering approaching Environmental Health to ask for an increase in the leachate level at Mont Cuet.
It is understood that Environmental Health would not be in favour of that. Department minister Bernard Flouquet raised the idea when he was speaking at a recent waste disposal authority meeting.
He said the danger from a fire burning deep inside the tip needed to be addressed. If the leachate level were allowed to rise it would be to put the blaze out, but this could result in the release of some undesirable gases.
‘It is getting towards the point where there needs to be something done,’ said Deputy Flouquet. The decision to consider the approach to Environmental Health comes after the completion of work by Geomarine which involved drilling several boreholes 30 metres into the tip.
Three of these reached the desired depth and recorded temperatures of 67, 69, and 70 degrees Celsius. An additional borehole that was drilled near these discovered a temperature of 44.
However, one of the boreholes came across a void at 21 to 23 metres down.
Public Services senior project manager Rob Roussel said it was the deepest void they had found at Mont Cuet so far.
He said Geomarine planned to do more profiling on the latest set of borehole temperatures before coming back to the department with its report. He expected this in a couple of weeks.
The blaze was discovered in 2005 and numerous attempts have been made made to put it out, to find the hotspot or to establish the best way of dealing with it, including before the latest set of boreholes, 20 of them being drilled in February.
Public Services member Deputy Tony Spruce raised the most serious alarm bells about the fire in June when he said if it kept spreading then the site would have to be taken out action, and that the lifespan of the tip could be reduced by three or four years if it became unworkable.
Article posted on 19th July, 2008 - 9.30am
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