A million pounds later the tip still has its hot spot
Saturday 30th May 2009, 2:29PM BST.
Rob Roussel monitors Mont Cuet’s hot spot, which is now 60C rather than 76C. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0781544)
AFTER spending more than £1m. trying to cool the Mont Cuet hot spot, Public Services has conceded that the landfill site is still too warm.
More than 10 million gallons of water have been pumped into the tip in an attempt to cool the 76C hot spot that had threatened to destabilise the site.
Three weeks after pumping officially finished, water is still being circulated and one spot on the site is still at 60C.
Public Services minister Bernard Flouquet did not accept that the department had wasted taxpayers’ money.
‘Though extremely complex, all aspects of the project have run exceptionally smoothly thanks to thorough planning by Public Services engineers and their consultants,’ he said.
Further cost implications for the recirculation of liquid within the site were ‘negligible’ and covered only the extended hire of pipes previously used for pumping from the Torrey Canyon Quarry.
Deputy Flouquet said, ‘The most expensive phase of the operation was in pumping water from the Vale Marais and Vale Pond pumping stations, which is no longer necessary.’
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A million quid on a fire that was never there. Brilliant. If scrutingy want an inguiry, this is it! Total shambles – Flouquet simply must go.
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Why on earth didnt they dump the million quid in the tip instead? Surely as a fuel resource, wouldnt it of been more sensible to try and utilise it?
GD
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‘Though extremely complex, all aspects of the project have run exceptionally smoothly thanks to thorough planning by Public Services engineers and their consultants,’
Great, so they faultlessly executed a fruitless task and it only cost us £1 million.
Well done!
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What I don^t understand is: What^s meant by the site being “destabilised”? Would it fall off somewhere?!
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Makes the £120,000 to keep the islands air links viable a bargain!
If there are hot spots and pockets of air etc why can they just not pack the rubbish in tighter? Seems simple to me but i am no engineer. We all know fire needs 3 things: fuel, heat and oxygen – remove one and the fire goes out! We cannot remove the fuel as that is the rubbish but there must be some way of removing the oxygen by compacting the rubbish down – then the heat dissipates and the fire goes out. Seems simple to me.
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You Know we groan and moan about the States and their modern archaic Ideas; even regarding this tip business
But the real and true reason is they are so pig headed about things: They try to baffle us with science- of which they haven’t a clue.
So as long as there is no outburst; Such as “enough is enough,” get experts once and for all.
I have just watched a program on that very subject; albeit on a larger scale, but the basic treatment is the same. It came over the National Geographic TV.
My word how they tackled that lot, and the money saved in the long run; the Methane gas was used to create energy for 100,000 Houses. Rubbish was sorted and sold off.
Now I am by no means saying this can happen in Guernsey; but surely there must be a solution for the long term.
They (the States) were quick to reclaim places for marinas: well why Not a place; suitably protected from leakage into the sea. If suitably big nenough it could last a hundred years or more.
Just a thought folks, but it could help.
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We need facts. there are no facts to his comment it all went well. if its still too hot then what is the next move ?
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Here are some facts for you conrad. 1million pound spent on a fire that wasn’t there. 60 degrees is not a fire consuming the quarry with the likelihood of a huge void swallowing all the workemen. We have been spun again!
Looks like another huge waste to me. Come on Mr Jones. Where’s your instinctive nose for a waste of public money?
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Jackie – you are missing the point that 60 degrees is the temperature AFTER the works. It was considerably hotter before the works started.
Just because the action has not be a complete success does not mean that it was the wrong course of action to follow.
But it gives us Guerns a good opportunity to complain about something that we know very little about.
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Not being an engineer i too am flumoxed about this. What would have been the problem with letting it all burn anyway? One way to make the tip last longer (might have polluted the atmosphere i guess).
The other suggestions to use the heat as a source of energy is surely worthy of more research?
Seems too simple so i am sure there is an answer out there somewhere.
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