A shower of farm slurry over Cheshire

[xerxes]

The title refers to a story by the comedian 'Blaster' Bates, who was also an explosives & demolition expert - it tells the tale of a cesspit being blown up.

This came to mind yesterday on my ride through the Cheshire countryside. On the road between Tabley and Antrobus I saw ahead of me what at first sight seemed to be a blizzard of grass cuttings blowing across the road. An odd time of year to be cutting grass, I thought, and as I approached it became clear that it was something else. A pipe was lying across a field, and seemed to have some kind of agricultural effluent being pumped through it. It had sprung a leak, and the pressure was such that a greenish-brown fountain was spouting 30 feet in the air, and being blown by the wind right across the road. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, it would have been an amusing photograph.

I decided it would be unhygienic to ride through this downpour, so took an alternative route. We have to put up with various hazards when cycling, but this is a new one!

[ChrisButch]

Happened quite a few times to me when a muckspreader was working just the other side of a hedge. Rotary muckspreaders fling the stuff out to quite a distance, especially if there's high liquid content in a strong wind.

[peetee]

A colleague arrived at work one day and his car had been covered in effluent that had appeared across the motorway as a cloud right beside the waste processing plant. He travelled that route for years and it only happened that once. Perhaps that was a burst pipe too?

[Bonefishblues]

I remember the story well.

[Cyril Haearn]

Aeroplanes drop a lot of %+&€@
If a plane has to turn back soon after take-off it might be too heavy to land so it has to jettison fuel

[pwa]

The title refers to a story by the comedian 'Blaster' Bates, who was also an explosives & demolition expert - it tells the tale of a cesspit being blown up.

This came to mind yesterday on my ride through the Cheshire countryside. On the road between Tabley and Antrobus I saw ahead of me what at first sight seemed to be a blizzard of grass cuttings blowing across the road. An odd time of year to be cutting grass, I thought, and as I approached it became clear that it was something else. A pipe was lying across a field, and seemed to have some kind of agricultural effluent being pumped through it. It had sprung a leak, and the pressure was such that a greenish-brown fountain was spouting 30 feet in the air, and being blown by the wind right across the road. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, it would have been an amusing photograph.

I decided it would be unhygienic to ride through this downpour, so took an alternative route. We have to put up with various hazards when cycling, but this is a new one!

If that was slurry, it could end up in a water course and end up killing fish. It sounds like a pollution incident. We have a big problem with slurry killing our streams.

[John Holiday]

I remember an incident some years ago when a Contractor was concerned about illegal camping alongside a development, & arranged for farmer to drive past spraying muck liberally.
The illegal residents disappeared rapidly.
Probably get prosecuted these days!