Corby & SteelA Brief History

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Roger BraithwaiteDirector

zerozero environment Ltdtel: 01926 62 49 66 fax: 01926 62 49 26

roger@zeroenvironment.co.uk www.zeroenvironment.co.uk

East Midlands EP Seminar 8th June 2010

In the beginning:

• There were navvies• In 1870 they came to build the railway,

and they found ….

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Large depositsof ironstone

First brickworks

• Turned out millions of bricks and became a major source of employment

• Created lots of large holes• Then the ironstone

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• Had a high phosphorus content – made the raw iron brittle and unsuitable for steel making

• Only 28-32% iron• Subsequently – Lloyd said : “ripping good

stone under twelve feet thick” • Resulted in a lease for 40 years (to 1920)• Initially stone taken off site

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(Mention Cd)

First iron making in Corby

• 1910• By 1917 3 blast furnaces• Became Stewarts & Lloyds• By 1930 estimated 500 million

tons of ironstone reserves

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Major expansion

• Integrated steel plant – largest in Europe

• Leading tube plant• Replaced works at Bilston,

Clydesdale and North Lincolnshire

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“Now and then a great commercial or industrial undertaking takes hold of the mind of the people and becomes a symbol of enterprise, high courage and progress. Corby, in its particular way, typifies the spirit of industrial resurgence”

Peak • Most modern ore preparation plant in

Europe• Two coke plants• Over 1 million tons iron• BOS – Electric arc = over million tons• Strip mills and rolling mills• Tube plants• Continuous weld• +++++

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“If the eventual steel closure had a bright side it was that the pollution also ceased with the steelmaking”

“The steel owners were much criticised for building workers’ houses so close to the works” (1945)

British Steel

• Nationalisation in1967 • Closure announced 1979• Unemployment – disaster on vast

personal scale

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“Courage & Realism”

• No time for time-consuming lethargies of conventional town hall procedures

• Decisive action and for fast, gut reaction decision-making

• Joint Industrial Development Committee (District, County, Commission for New Towns & BS

• 7 chief officers were replaced by 3

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• “All were young and dynamic men in their 30s”

• Council effectively placed executive powers in the hands of their own leadership

• “You don’t get intellectual debates concerning high principle. It is very much plain speaking; straight forward argument”

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• Council staff reduced by 20%• “There was, for example, a severe

restriction on the number of planning and architectural staff, thus reducing the traditional post-war obsession with pre-planning and over-design which I believe to have been two of the major restrictions on creating commercial confidence and stimulating development”

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The new era• “To achieve industrial rejuvenation it is

essential that a Council must control the essential ingredient, land. An early acquisition of land programme must be implemented to the detriment of other resource priorities ….”

• Planning criteria were rapidly reappraised

• …. all of it must go – down to the last pile of rubble

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• Corby District Council, one of the smallest in the country, embarks on one of the biggest land reclamation projects in Europe.

• 270 hectares, £21,000,000

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Environmental Health (March 82)

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“It is understood that as yet no soil analysis has been carried out on the land recently purchased from BSC. When such samples are taken I would be grateful to know of any such results before soil is re-sited should they contain the following:”

List of 28 elements, compounds etc, including any with –

“Carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic properties”

BSC Report (Nov 1978)

• “A survey of tanker services for treatment disposal within Corby works”

• Related to effluents and sludges disposed of to “toxic ponds” and other settlement ponds etc (there were lots)

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A few quotes:

• Many effluents can’t be disposed of in this manner due to their very high toxicity

• These ponds (toxic ponds only) have a capacity in excess of 20,000,000 gallons

• It is feared that many of the effluents are disposed of incorrectly

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….• BOS PLANT – slurry tank at gas

conditioning plant – high ss, high chlorine, pH 12.8 – volumes unknown

• Settling pond near cooling tower – ditto• COLD DRAW TUBE PLANT - Bonderite

dripping tray at ‘A’ bay – very high sludge, pH 1.4

• Alkali dripping tray at ‘A’ bay – pH 12.6• Oxalate tank at ‘D’ bay- pH 1.2

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….

• DEENE COKE OVENS – Primary pump house for hot and cold liquor sumps – tar, oil, liquor – very high NH3, phenols etc

• Three rich oil tanks and sumps – oil, nathalene, benzole etc

• GALAVANISING PLANT – very high ss, high zinc, high NH3, ph 1.4

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….• GLEBE COKE OVENS – Lime sump near

mother liquor tank, pH 12.1

• Mother liquor tank – high NH3, high Cl, pH 2.2

• Devil liquor – high NH3, high Cl

• Benzole plant sump – sludge, oil, water, benzole

• Seepage at the side of lime sump – very high NH3, acidic (pH 1,7), high Cl. NB this liquor is dissolving the walls of the lime sump at a very fast rate.

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….

• MISCELLANEOUS – Gas condensate catch pots, around 150 to 160 – high NH3, CN and phenol etc, VERY TOXIC. About 4,000 gallons / day

• Tar tanks at base of two gas holders – oil-water emulsion, tar, toxic material, VERY TOXIC. About 14,000 gallons / m

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And so on ……….