Paul
I would hopoe that they did not excavate large holes and pile the waste
up as this would almost certainly make the situation more difficult to
manage. I would not be so worried about the wastes that had been
excavated and deposited as the emissions from the resulting fire that
could take a hold under the ground after all that air had been alloweed
in to fan the flames/smouldering wastes. Fire brigades are not usually
expert at putting landfill fires out and "squirting" everything with
water could just generate lots of hydrogen. Further to this products of
combustion could include SO2,HCN, HCl, phosgene, particulates and many
others.
The liability issue would almost certainly be an after thought, and the
fire brigade might have more immediate problems with people they had
gassed.
Putting out a Landfill fire takes a lot more thought, control and
ingenuity.
Regards
Keiron Finney
Technical Officer (Specialist in landfill gas)
Environment Agency
-----Original Message-----
From: Contaminated Land Management Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul
Baccarini
Sent: 20 March 2008 10:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Part IIA
Hi all
I carried out a walkover survey last week, and I discovered some
interesting features on an old (1960s) landfill site. What I saw got me
thinking of a theoretical question:
If an old landfill site developed an underground fire (say for argument
sake in the 1990s) and the fire brigade went on site an excavated large
holes in order to put it out - who would be liable if the piles of
excavated rubbish (left on the surface for years after) were shown to
cause
a pollutant linkage?
This is probably a simple (and hopefully not silly) question, but I have
never heard of such a case before. I assume the fire brigade would be
exempt as the situation arose under an emergency situation? If this is
the
case, who would be liable?
I would be interested to hear people's thoughts.
Regards
Paul B
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