Soil....glorious soil
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I only blog if there is something interesting happening, so the fact that I've haven't had an entry for the best part of 3 weeks says it all. While most of you are in Malaysia having a blast, I am stuck here sitting, waiting, wishing.
Nevertheless, today was quite exciting. I was scheduled for a day trip to Pukekohe. Sean (the senior environmental engineer) and I were going to 2 sites to collect soil samples to be tested for possible contamination.
So off we went, for about three quarters of an hour drive. We reached this huge piece of farm land mainly use for grazing and sheep herding. The issue with this site was there used to be a sheep dip present around the 1950's.
Sheep dips are a particularly nasty land feature as it contains chemicals that could potentially be harmful to humans. The dips are used to kill parasites on sheep and the organophosphate-based versions are generally used because it is cheaper and thought to be more effective than other formulations. Problem is, some people might be genetically allergic to the organophosphate dips. To cut the long story short, potential soil contamination from these chemicals and furthermore, potential contamination to the water supply cause by the runoff from discharge points could very well determine if these lands are fit for subdividing for residential purposes.
Since the dip was not used for so long, it was completely covered with grass and debris. We spent about 2 hours digging soil to determine the general shape of the dip. Also present within the site is a water trough, a woolshed (which had a zinc roof and lead base corrugated iron paint panels that could be harmful to the environment from storm water runoff) and also an offal hole (go find out what it is and bear in mind that we had to take samples around that area).
After that, it was off to the next site and on the way there, we had our lunch in the car (man, engineers cant even stop for lunch). Somewhere along the motorway, we had to stop to measure a culvert diameter. In order to measure it, we had to jump across this fence. Probably being too gung ho, I started climbing the fence firstly by leaning my arm on the up most point. But there was a problem....
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THE FLIPPIN FENCE WAS ELECTRIC!!! DUH!!.... After tolerating the carnage, I managed to cross the fence using my gymnastics skills ; a double backflip, lateral twist, 360 spin combo.
Next on the agenda was a visit to Franklin District Council to get some aerial photographs, then it was off to our next site. This site is an orchid farm with its own boiler room, waste oil unit and pump station. We had to test for mainly heavy metals (like arsenic and copper) and also organic pesticides ( e.g. DDT) which can be carcinogenic. Historically, this land was used for market gardening (tomatoes, cucumber etc) which means DDT based pesticides is very much prevalent in surrounding soil.
Finally, after collecting samples and taking photographs, we were done for the day. On the way back, Sean was explaining all this technical gibberish which I should be listening but was too busy observing the lush farmland and two cows getting it on.
Oh…before I sign off, my company is having a dinner this saturday and the theme is "Outer Space". Please offer some ideas. And no, not Chewbacca.
Alex
5:53 PM
CRAPPER
Ah-Lek Cheah
September 8th 1986
New Zealand
Civil Engineer wannabe
About the author:
Malaysian by birth, Alex Cheah was born in the rough and ruggard suburban city of Paramount Garden. He currently is pursuing a degree
in Civil Engineering in Auckland University, New Zealand.
The overall subject of blogging has been a life long passion. His frist blog has receives many accolates and criticism. The second (craptacular) aims
to cater for the ever growing demand of his friends.
In craptacular, Alex incorporates the very best of Malaysian Humour garnished with a hint of sacarsm and a pinch of disgustingly LAME jokes.
The result is a simple, practical blog which is geared to either piss someone off or provide humour to his/her life (hopefully the latter).
