See the world with environmental science

Term is well and truly underway, in fact it is racing past at a frightening pace.

Greenery at a former Cr waste site

Just before term started Ian Burke (University of Leeds) and Robert Woods (Bolton Council) kindly gave myself and Laura Bellis, one of our MEnv students, a tour of a former Cr waste site somewhere in the northwest. Laura will be looking at earthworm distributions on the site as part of her MEnv research project. The site has a clean soil cap as part of its remediation and we are interested to see how earthworms have colonised this.

Then last week we took our MEnv students to exotic Huntingdon (it’s on the other side of York!) to the Portakabin site. We had an excellent morning getting a tour of the facility and discussing environmental issues associated with the site. I was particularly impressed by the way they collect fumes associated with the chemical reactions that occur as the foam insulation that they inject into their modules for insulation expands and vent these safely to the atmosphere. Many thanks to the Portakabin team for being so welcoming and helpful.

Walking between rows of Portakabin modules

In the paint shed

The steel framework for our new offices

Meanwhile back at base our new building continues to grow. You can now see the framework for the offices and start to get an idea about the size. Each time I go past I feel guilty about the construction noise that our soon-to-be neighbours in Wentworth college and Biology are having to put up with. We're still all looking forward to moving in next Autumn and are beginning to think about how we should celebrate the event.