Urgghh! Medway this morning, What's that smell?

[captainzep]

Driving down into Chatham for work and I start to wonder if there's something wrong with the aircon.

Smells like the initial oily fumes from a cheap 'one match' portable BBQ.

But sadly isn't.

Been lingering all morning.

-Comms have just emailed round saying that the Envirnment Agency and Environmental Health are apparently investigating.

[captainzep]

I'll answer my own question.

According to our comms:

"Officers from the Environment Agency and Medway Council’s Environmental Protection Team have identified the source of the smell that people have noticed today. The odour has been pinpointed to a wood recycling plant in Chatham Docks.

Stock piles are high at the docks as a plant in Sweden that the wood is destined for has been closed for essential maintenance. The plant is now open and the priority is to ship out the stock as quickly as possible."

So there I go.

[mcflurry]

Apparently the wood is for the Scandanavian wood burning power stations, but the stock levels got out of sync due to the weather and large numbers of people on holiday (so power not needed as much).
As it's a fairly new contract they hope to learn from their inventory mistakes.

IIRC hearing, the storage location will be moved slightly as so any dust etc won't pollute the river

[captainzep]

Mildly interested in this still, I had a peek from the footbridge over the docks. Those huge piles of wood chippings/waste are smouldering away. There's a fire engine sat next to them. I guess its the same thing as self-igniting haystack fires...

[Grey Ghost]

captainzep said:

Those huge piles of wood chippings/waste are smouldering away. There's a fire engine sat next to them. I guess its the same thing as self-igniting haystack fires...

Enjoy that.....there was a wood chippings fire near me a couple of months ago in a recycling yard (old quarry) that burnt for nearly 3 weeks

[mdk1]

Have smelt it the last couple of nights, and I'm in Cliffe Woods.

[captainzep]

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/noxious_smell_cause...

[jhfozzy]

One of our local wood chipping / recycling places caught fire in 2005 and closed the M4 as the smoke had blanketed the motorway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4297448.stm

http://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/documents/fire_authorit...