£4m. clean-up bill
Friday 11th September 2009, 2:30PM BST.
ISLANDERS face a £4m. bill to remove toxic chemicals from soil at the airport.
Pollution incidents including an Aiport Fire and Rescue Service appliance overturning and spilling poisonous foam concentrate, mean that areas of contaminated earth must be dug up.
The cost emerged in Public Services’ runway repair report in this month’s billet.
The £4m. will also include preventative measures in case of future incidents.
That is on top of another £4.1m for repairs to drainage.
In all, the work is part of a total project cost of around £80m.
After a press briefing at the airport yesterday, airport director Colin Le Ray said that the project team had known that some pollution treatment would need to be budgeted for, but it was not until their consultants identified the extent of the problem that they could put a separate price on it.
‘The pollution is effectively remnants from firefighting foam that contains a chemical component called PFOSS,’ he said.
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Can’t we save money here by asking the hardworking airport firemen to dig up the grass they poisoned with their crazy driving antics?
If they have time that is.
Probably too busy.
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Don’t be so silly, If it was you or I we would have to pay someone professional to clean up the spill, but because its the states, we can use tax payers money (so therefore we must be the professionals all along)
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I find the press very “anti states worker” as of late.
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Why didn’t they sort out this spill as soon as it happened? It would’ve decreased this bill dramatically!
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Very good Mrs PinthePantry, any old excuse to have a go eh? For your information it was one individual that caused the overturned appliance and he has been gone a number of years now. Secondly if you have read the report into the whole incident you will see it was not down to ‘crazy driving antics’. Thirdly the foam spilt out of the appliance probably makes up a small percentage of the total amount used in tests, incidents and training over the last 30 years before we were made aware of the potential hazard it causes to the environment. This story is obviously being dragged up again due to the bad press the Airport Fire Service has had recently and as there was no other sensational headlines to slate us with at the moment this one had to do for now.
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SM – “any old excuse to have a go eh?”
Yep any old excuse, like because you guys were negligent it’s costing the rest of us £4,000,000.00!
Wow, it’s a lot of zeros when you write it like that………..
Anyway, back in the dark days of www .guernseyairportfirmen.com someone very wise suggested privatising the airport fire service. Once again in situations like this it would work very well. If Guernsey Airport Firemen Ltd. didn’t clear up the contamination themselves then the States would bill them.
Simples!
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MrsPinthepantry I think you need to remove your blinkers. Yes the overturned appliance did add to the foam already contaminating the Airport soil but the previous 20 to 30 years of contamination would no doubt drown out the amount from this. Yes all the foam contaminating the Airfield has been put there by Airport Firefighters over many years of training and incidents (and one accident) but not in a negligent way. If there was no knowledge or information present to inform us of any environmental hazard by using the foam then it is not really fair to say Airport Firefighters have been negligent by using it. Are we supposed to carry out our own investigations and surveys on every bit of kit we are supplied with to make sure that it complies with every law, procedure or whatever. I think not. This should be done at a higher level by the powers that order and supply all the equipment and we (the firefighters) shouldn’t be seen as negligent because we trust the decisions of our management or suppliers and don’t double check their work.
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Hi SM, so good to hear from you!
But I’m worried.
Very worried SM.
It’s not just because that even Mrs P Jnr knows that that firefighting foam is pretty nasty stuff but it’s a surprise to you.
What’s really scary is your comment:-
“Are we supposed to carry out our own investigations and surveys on every bit of kit we are supplied with to make sure that it complies with every law, procedure or whatever. I think not.”
If you were talking about the lackadaisical way I go about my daily life and Mr P’s lack of due diligence in registering websites then I’d agree but you’re not.
You are talking about the responsibilities of being an airport fireman.
(or at least you pretend to be one, but who knows? It’s teh interwebs, you can be who you want to be baby!)
You ARE supposed to be fully conversant with all laws, procedures, hazards etc. relating to your job.
Equally worrying “we trust the decisions of our management or suppliers and don’t double check their work.”
You don’t double check what you have been supplied with????????
REALLY???????????
Mind boggling stuff when it comes to aircraft safety, but in my experience fairly typical of a Government employee, I think you all need to take onboard some personal responsibility up there.
I can see it now:-
‘Hey SM! how come there’s no air in my cylinder I’m choking over here!’
‘Sorry, no one told me I had to check it was full, it was fine when it was delivered 5 years ago…..hang on I’ll just come over and…aaaarrrrggghhhh oh no! I forgot to tie my shoelaces and fell over, why didn’t my manager TELL me to tie them? Oh actually the laces are missing, they must have been supplied like that. It’s the boot manufacturers fault…….’
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MrsPinthepantry:
You appear to not know the ins and outs of an Airport Fire Station (well Guernsey’s anyway), (queue the response “neither do you”). I said the Firefighters (whom you seem to want to blame) do not undertake the ordering of equipment, the research into what equipment to get etc. etc. By Firefighters I mean the basic lowest rank Firefighters. This is done by higher ranking more important people. Yes we might get a little bit of input (but it is rarely listened to). Of course once we have the equipment we do train with it, learn about it and what it can do and service and maintain it regularly and basically make sure it will do the job well. When I said we don’t double check the managements orders or suppliers info I mean that it is not down to us (basic firefighters) to start researching what has already been done just to make sure higher paid higher ranking people are doing their job properly or suppliers may aren’t lying to us in relation to the hazardous nature of certain items. Of course we don’t just get new equipment and put it on the appliance without thoroughly checking it out. Apologies if I didn’t explain myself clearly (and maybe still haven’t, I am not a literary genius)
A Basic Firefighter does not have to be conversant with laws relating to equipment and firefighting media. We use the tools we are given to do the job, we ourselves don’t get involved with the research and supplying etc.
I think the fact that FFFP Firefighting foam is so dangerous to the environment was a surprise to everybody when it was first discovered. This is the whole issue, the fact that a substance, that when used will be spread over a large area of land, was supplied and no information or evidence provided to let anybody know how dangerous it is. I am sure even you did not know the dangers of it when it was first used about thirty years ago (if you were alive then, I don’t know how old you are and wouldn’t be so rude as to ask!)
To finish I can assure you that everybody at the Airport Fire Service is very professional in their approach to their job and takes their responsibility very seriously despite all the insults and derogatory comments to the contrary.
In relation to your last paragraph I am currently trying to get the management to supply us with velcro fastening shoes like when I was a nipper to avoid anymore staff tripping into the foam tanks! We will be bringing a lawsuit against Clarks.
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