Contaminated Land around Glasgow and Lanarkshire

[excoriate]

Hi folks, I'm about to start work on an MSc thesis, a risk assessment of contaminated land.

Don't laugh but I haven't been able to identify a site (although theres most likely hundreds)

Can anyone here provide details of land they know to be contaminated and most importantly, accessible?

I'm hopeful that I'll eventually find something through the official channels but its not a bad thing having a back up plan!

[gap74]

Are you planning on taking samples from these sites?

Many of the chromium waste sites around Rutherglen and Cambuslang have now (eventually!) been capped, like the Dukes Rd playing fields and the land on the other side of the road at Trinity High School. Not sure if the Toryglen playing fields have been dealt with, they were fenced off for years. The former ground of Glencairn Football Club and land behind it were practically on the doorstep of White's Chemical Works, and are probably going to be lost soon under the M74 extension.

I was doing my CSYS in Chemistry at the time this all kicked off, was going to test the burn through the site - it's largely culverted now, but emerges in Richmond Park next to Shawfield Stadium before joining the Clyde. Ended up abandoning it as it was a bit too tricky for a secondary school project!

[excoriate]

I'm hoping to take samples yeah but a lot of the sites I know about have also been capped.

Some kind person from this forum suggested the Hallside Steelworks in Newton, but unfortunately this too has been largely dealt with.

That football ground is notorious, part of the earth mound terracing was made from contaminated material, surely that was obviously a bad thing...

My only hope now is finding a smallscale project or a large one in Renfrewshire. I was reading earlier that they were awarded in the region of 3million to deal with contaminated land, a substantial amount when you consider 8million was to be shared among the authorities!

[My Word]

was going to test the burn through the site - it's largely culverted now, but emerges in Richmond Park next to Shawfield Stadium before joining the Clyde. Ended up abandoning it as it was a bit too tricky for a secondary school project!

I believe its called Moll's Myre, flows from around Dixon's Blazes.

[gap74]

Hallside Steelworks are pretty much next door to where I'm typing, they were dealt with in a manner which was experimental - basically, the entire site was capped with a metre or so of material which was a mix of two local bings and sewage cake, with tons of worms thrown in for good measure. There was an Open University program about it at the time which I might still have on VHS somewhere, be interesting to know if it actually worked.

This was an enabling development - in other words, if the developer dealt with this brownfield site, the council would release greenfield to them for building on. Ten years later, the steelworks site is still pretty much just a jungle of fast-growing trees and mud, not at all the leisure playground with jogging tracks and ponds we were sold on at the time.

Plus ca change....

[My Word]

I was doing my CSYS in Chemistry at the time this all kicked off, was going to test the burn through the site - it's largely culverted now, but emerges in Richmond Park next to Shawfield Stadium before joining the Clyde. Ended up abandoning it as it was a bit too tricky for a secondary school project!

Well.

[DickyHart]

theres some in rutherglen behind southcroft footy park, the signs are still up to keep out. its right behind burnhill sports centre, ya cant miss it.

[deakin]

I'm not sure on the facts here but the old WW2 AAC site that was along side Cairnmuir road close to Cathkin was aperently contaminated by some kind of nasty stuff dumped by someone a few years back.
Hence the reason it got filled in and covered over.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=55.78695 ... =7&src=msl

link takes you to the image of area.

[excoriate]

theres some in rutherglen behind southcroft footy park, the signs are still up to keep out. its right behind burnhill sports centre, ya cant miss it.

Aye thats the ground of Glencairn football club.
Dodgy, dodgy ground!

Think thats being invesigated in July according to the Herald, and will soon be cemented over as part of the new M74 extension.

[Woolly Joss]

I believe its called Moll's Myre, flows from around Dixon's Blazes.

Moll's Myre flows under the pitch at Hampden, flows from between the South and West stand (at the Mount Florida end) and comes out under the East Stand (the Aikenhead Road end). No idea where it starts though.

Back on topic, there was some chromium-contaminated material removed from Lesser Hampden in 2002 when they were building the village for hospitality for the Champions League Final.

[excoriate]

Hi folks, thought I'd update in case anyone was browsing curiously.

Found an old gasworks site thanks to a very helpful council employee and went out with the ground investigation team and a JCB. Don't think I can mention much more but I Found some very nasty stuff that "might've" been migrating underneath a nearby cottage.

Luckily, its getting bulldozed along with the overgrown site to make way for:

Luxury flats!


(after clean up)

[MacotheIsles]

Excoriate!

Have you tried Ravenscraig in Motherwell; site of the former steelworks? I do believe there may be some dubious ground there. I think this could
be of relevance to your study. Being redeveloped just now.

[Auldeejit]

Sighthill in Glasgow is built on the site of a vast chemical dump, the Soda Waste. Bounded in the north by Sighthill Cemetery & Townhead in the south, it lay between Keppochill Rd. and Springburn Rd.
Levelled and built over in the 60s, by the then Glasgow Corporation, the scheme opened in 1969.
These plans were said at the time to have been rushed through, as the Corporation were desperate for land.
Although the Soda Waste was the greatest adventure playground in the world, a certain section was to be avoided. This was the internationally renowned 'Stinky Ocean'. A small lake of pure minge and smelling as bad as it looked. It lay beside the railway line at the eastern entrance to the Buchanan St. Tunnel.
There is a stretch of Pinkston Road, near the railway bridge, where the pong lingers on. On wet days or very warm days it can be detected from a long way off.
They say you can even smell it in the Queen Street Tunnel. So it must still be there, lurking.

[conn75]

I was doing my CSYS in Chemistry at the time this all kicked off, was going to test the burn through the site - it's largely culverted now, but emerges in Richmond Park next to Shawfield Stadium before joining the Clyde. Ended up abandoning it as it was a bit too tricky for a secondary school project!

That burn stinks of chemicals. I've seen one of the herons along that way sitting on the railings of the rotten wee bridge where it enters the Clyde, though, so it can't be that bad.

[Luco]

Cabledepot Rd behind the old HCI hospital has a big area which is contaminated, I suppose that goes for the whole John Brown/SHipbuilding yards. The factory part on the land went on fire about three years ago, imagine what that threw into the environment.