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igem news – events

WELSH SECTION PAYS A LONDON STROLL

A VISIT TO TRECATTI

BIOGENIE SITE

SOME VERY GOOD ALE INDEED
By David Goodall, London,
Southern and Eastern Section
committee member

YET AGAIN we enjoyed a good
turnout for the London, Southern
and Eastern Section’s famed
Christmas walk.
Stepping down King Charles
Street, we met the group outside the
Imperial War Museum’s Churchill
War Rooms.
Walking down to the secret
underground headquarters where
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
VISIT TO TRECATTI BIOGENIE SITE lived and worked during the Second
World War, one had a real insight
By Thomas James, Welsh Section Chair into what went on amongst the
people that worked down there, plus
IN DECEMBER, members of IGEM’s chlorinated solvents. their lifestyle and work ethic in such
Welsh Section visited the Trecatti Soil The process is landfill tax exempt and harrowing times.
Treatment Facility, in Merthyr Tydfil. the facilities are fully licensed, meaning The experience was
Many brownfield development that substantial savings can be made on overwhelming and we all received
sites have previously been used hazardous disposal without sacrificing a sense of what it would have been
for industrial activities including compliance or sustainability. The like for workers in the narrow
the manufacture of town gas, coal treatment provides optimal conditions underground corridors and what a
and coking. To make the sites fit for for the bacteria naturally present in the fantastic job they did.
purpose, any toxic contaminants need soil, which promotes their development Then, it was off to Parliament
to be removed with an environmentally and increases their capacity to degrade Street where we visited the Red
friendly process. This is what happens organic pollutants. Lion. A public house has stood here
at the soil treatment facility, carried The visit included a site tour along since 1749 and the Red Lion has
out by Biogenie Site Remediation at the with an overview of the operations, been a famous haunt of every British
Biffa Trecatti landfill. treatment processes and reuse of the Prime Minister since Ted Heath. It
The Trecatti soil treatment facility is materials. The visit was well attended was once visited by a young Charles
able to treat a variety of materials and with attendees from a variety of Dickens, who famously asked for
contaminants, and the team supports industry related backgrounds. Thanks “a glass of your very best ale” as
every stage from initial testing and pre- must go to the managers and engineers immortalised in his novel David
acceptance, through to the final treatment from Biogenie who showed us the site Copperfield.
and disposal. The contaminants and answered our questions. We then had a fabulous Christmas
treated include gasworks waste, such dinner with just a few glasses of their
as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); If you want to know more about the “very best ale”. What a great way to
total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH); process or to contact Biogenie visit their start the Christmas festivities!
volatile organic compounds (VOC) and website at www.biogenie.co.uk

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