Notable case, Avonmouth, England (Bristol), United Kingdom

Avonmouth zinc smelter

Set up in 1917 to make mustard gas, it was then Britain's major zinc, lead and cadmium smelter for eighty years. Its surroundings are one of the classic places for studies of how metals affect earthworms and soil fauna.

Status: Remediated
Activity: 1917–2003
Media: soil, living organisms, air
Kind of site: smelter, military, chemical works

Contaminants

Metals

Organic compounds

Chemical warfare agents (mustard, arsenicals)

Status

Remediated

The works site has been redeveloped as a distribution centre and a recycling plant; in 2012 the work uncovered a mustard gas shell and the site was cleared only at the end of 2013, after Ministry of Defence checks. Soils in the surrounding area were sampled on a grid in October 2007 (NERC dataset).

Story

The works were ordered in 1917 by the Minister of Munitions, Winston Churchill, to make mustard gas: they started up in spring 1918 and produced 20 tonnes a day. In the six months of operation, among 1,100 mostly female workers, there were 1,400 reported illnesses, seven deaths and over a thousand burns.

In 1929 the site passed to the Imperial Smelting Corporation and became a zinc smelter; the Imperial Smelting Process was developed here and from 1967 it housed what was then the world's largest zinc blast furnace. It produced zinc, cadmium, lead and sulphuric acid. It closed in 2003.

Studies of soils at increasing distance from the smelter found earthworm density and diversity falling with proximity, down to no earthworms at all within 1 km; zinc was the metal most likely to be limiting.

Timeline

1917The mustard gas factory is built.
1929The site passes to the Imperial Smelting Corporation.
1967The large zinc blast furnace starts up.
2003The smelter closes.
2012A mustard gas shell is found during redevelopment.

Health

In 1918, in six months of mustard gas production: 1,400 illnesses among 1,100 workers, seven deaths, 160 accidents with more than a thousand burns (Wikipedia).

Remediation

2013survey and redevelopmentMinistry of Defence testing for mustard gas residues and industrial redevelopment of the site.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.