Wee Notes & Breaking News
These are William’s notes and comments as the year progresses.
Contamination - the blight of our forefathers.
I have just returned from a couple of days visiting family near Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast. Politics aside, the presence of the long standing nuclear power plant brought to my mind the matter of activities undertaken by our forefathers impacting us and our children. This in turn brought to mind the case of ‘Love Canal’ near Niagara Falls in America. This was a late 19th Century canal project which was repurposed as a dump for a variety of chemicals prior to being used for housing and a school. The resultant impact on the community brought about the whole ‘Polluter Pays ‘ principle in the USA and beyond and established the concept of a risked based approach to the problem of contamination.
This brings me to our part in reducing risk to our communities and children. Since being established, Terrenus Land & Water has been closely involved in the assessment and remediation of past industrial (and agricultural) activities so that there is no linkage between the source, the pathway and the receptor. Looking back, we are, I think, justifiably satisfied that we have helped to turn areas where contamination is a concern into sites where risks have been mitigated and which allow new growth for tomorrow’s world.
How do we solve the problem of the water.
It strikes me that every week I am asked if a certain site will flood. A good question and, as I tell clients, the first place to look is the SEPA Flood Map which give an outline idea of the fluvial, surface water and coastal flood likelihood. The problem is that we live in a world where avoidance of flood risk is assumed and to know the details of the possible inundation - some form of hydraulic modelling is often needed. Three key inputs form the backbone of any flood model - the landform (including things which affect the flow of water), the amount of water falling from the sky and the roughness of the environment. Two of these elements entail very big data sets and it falls to our modellers to cope with the information systems in order to construct a robust model. We have to justify every part of the model and the end product is always very impressive but rarely cheap.
To avoid un-necessary costs I always recommend giving us a call to get a heads up on any site prior to the start of any formal work. To our valued clients its cost free.
Earthwork and the Weather
It is a universal truth in Scotland that just when you want to start site investigation works or earthwork platforming works that the weather takes a turn for the worst. Like farmers who are at the mercy of the rain clouds so are all ground workers. Sometimes it is a matter of having the right equipment and clothes, however, the complex relationship between soils and water can result in an troublesome halts and expensive delays not to mention the ever present health and safety concerns.
It is with this background that we start another cycle of platforming works at Bishopton. Alex and Edwina, once they have donned the right clothing, will brave the elements to ensure that settlement monitoring results in the site being fit for purpose later this year.
Gas Clam
Whilst there are measures that we can take to mitigate the problem of soil/mine gas to a development the first key is to assess the ground conditions correctly. Monitoring of borehole standpipes takes time and, if you are not careful, you can miss the impact of changing atmospheric pressure on the gas coming to surface.
In order to provide improved data, shorten the monitoring period and ultimately arrive at a more cost effective solution, our Alex Muir was able to purchase a number of ‘gas clams’.
These machines fit into the borehole standpipe and take many readings over a week or two week period thus allowing us to provide the best service to our clients.
Rain on Grid?
Speaking to Jonny earlier this morning, he is well advanced on a rain on grid hydraulic model which is ideal for assessing minor watercourses across a site. Key to this is the increasingly detailed available LiDAR dataset which, once we have truthed it using our in-house survey equipment, provides an ideal platform for the analysis. This is very much ‘here be dragons’ type of work and Jonny brings considerable skill to his work on a daily basis.
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