WEEK 13 - Day 49 Cleaning Pan 5 and Starting Butterfly Garden

The clearance of the ash and cinders from Stove House 5 continued. There should be 18 lorry loads removed over the day, each carrying an average of 17 tons a trip. Salt also continued to be removed from Stove 1.

Two new activities started today. Cleaning of the salt pan moved from Pan House 5 started with a manual knocking of of surface debris. Apologies are due to all our neighbours for the resulting banging and hammering. this must have been what it was like when the salt pans were in use. The traditional practice was to 'pick' a salt pan pm a Monday morning to remove build up of pan scale and salt from the previous weeks salt making, so that fresh brine start to be heated for the new week.

The underside of the pan shows many original rivetted plates which have had new plates welded over the top. It has a patchwork appearance of overlying metal plates.

In the south west corner a cotter pin and patch was still in place. Phil was able to gentle tap the wedge out and take the drain patch apart.

We also began laying the paths for a recreational area to the south west of the site, which will be planted as a buddlea garden. This is funded by a landfill grant contribution made by Ineos Chlor via the Mersey Forest team. The paths are being edged today and will have hardcore laid over a membrane tomorrow.