With over 500 subscribers to this blog we reasoned that some of you my have experience of landfill fires which you may be able and willing to send us.

The research is non-profit making, and your information on landfill fires just might make a difference someday, especially if it put you in danger and the message you send us about it may help others not to make the same mistake!

He’s doing an MSc (Sustainable Waste Management) at the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment at Southampton University.

This is the enquiry he has made:

“My dissertation is on the subject of the “Detection and Treatment of Landfill Fires”

The aim of my paper is to review current ‘good practice’ for avoiding and extinguishing landfill fires by talking to experts around the world and gathering together the best information as a guide for European landfill operators, local authorities and Fire and Rescue Services in the UK. I want to provide a balanced view of ‘what works’ and ‘ what doesn’t work’ for MSW, C&D. Industrial and tyre wastes. The Fire College have said that they would be interested in parts of the dissertation if these can be translated into Guidance Notes.

This is my Wish List of research information:

* Documented / anecdotal reports of landfill fires:
* How were they started – deliberate (in the Third World), arson, spontaneous combustion, lightning, etc
* How were they treated – successes and failures.
* Fugitive emissions information – water and air.
* Geotechnical information – formation of ‘sink holes’, collapse, effect on containment system
* Any academic papers on the subject
* Introduction to anyone who has suffered a fire.

Any help will be most gratefully received and fully acknowledged and I will be very happy to let you have a copy of my dissertation, once it is accepted.”

Can you help? Use the comments form below or email any private communications to info@wastersblog.com

“The scale of illegal tipping at this site is the worst I have encountered”; said Adrian Evans, Environment Agency.

As sentencing was carried out today, John Craxford and his company John Craxford Plant Hire Ltd was also ordered to pay £86,937 in fines and legal costs.

Mr Craxford had pleaded guilty to a string of offences committed at Yannon Lane landfill site at Kingkerswell in Devon – including the illegal burying of “massive volumes of unsuitable waste” as well as waste licence and pollution permit breaches since March 2003.

The case marks a major success for the Environment Agency in the South West, as well as its partner in the major investigation “Operation Cleansweep”, the Assets Recovery Agency.

The seizure of £1,194,638 represents the largest ever made following an environmental conviction in this country. Judge Wassell said the company must make a payment of £300,000 by March 31 and the remaining balance will have to be paid by the end of July this year.

Mr Craxford, who was well-known on the international power boat racing circuit in the 1970s and 1980s, but has been keeping a low profile more recently, faces a five-year prison sentence if he does not pay up.

Adrian Evans from the environmental crime team of the Environment Agency said: “The scale of illegal tipping at this site is the worst I have encountered. Our investigation revealed a catalogue of offences, committed over a period of several years.

By working in partnership with the Assets Recovery Agency, we have been able to recover the money made from the illegal activity. I hope the case serves as a warning to others and demonstrates that environmental crime does not pay.” More…