BURIED GAS MENACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 April 1934, Page 11

BURIED GAS MENACE

STORE NOT DESTROYED

COLOGNE MOOR CLOSED LONDON, 7th April. Wahner Moor, Cologne’s largest open space, has been ordered to be closed for 30 years, because the city fathers, like the man who does not know how safely to dispose of his razor blades, are unable to destroy a large store of poison gas. After the war an attempt was made to burn the gas, but it affected the vegetation, and accordingly the drams of gas were buried in the sandy soil, three feet beneatli th e munition factory on Wahner Moor. When the factory was dismantled it was feared that the gas would escape and pollute Cologne’s subsoil water. The authorities then considered sinking the gas in the sea, but decided it would be too dangerous to attempt to transport it down the Rhine to the sea. Again they tried burning and neutralisation, and eventually dug a pit 20ft deep, floored with a foot of clay, on which was laid six inches of concrete to support a “coffin” made of reinforced concrete 2ft thick, the walls of which were covered with three coats of tar to seal the pores. The “coffin” measured 15 by 15 by 8 feet. When the gas was dug up, it was found that some of the containers were broken, so.the infected earth was also placed in the coffin, and the, concrete lid was sealed. Then a comparison of old documents showed that tile reburied gas was less than the original amount. In despair, the city fathers closed the moor.