Drought order announced. West embankment almost all flattened. Part 3. 13th August 2022

This covers north of copse east to wetlands and close to pump station.

 Because I did not wander all the way over to the east side of current restoration work, last week, I'm not sure if some of the work I identify in this week's post was actually done last week. Circumstantial reasoning suggest the work was done this week.

Inert have flitted about this area smearing more capping soil, flattening mounds of clay like soil and, dumping yet more clay like soil.  There is also a possibility that Inert are starting to dig out Manor lake.

The area around the north and immediate east of the copse has seen mounds of stuff flattened. I believe this to be clay like soil to provide a sort of waterproofing for wetlands. Topsoil, from the embankments, has been smeared around the wetlands, and now cover a large part of the northern area of the current restoration.

What is immensely baffling is that a whole load of topsoil has been smeared on what was Cormorant lake (north). What baffles me is that this topsoil has not come from the eastern north embankment or ridge. These edifices used to be twice the height of the western north embankment, yet neither has been touched. Instead, topsoil seems to have been carted around from the embankments on the western side of the current restoration!

Moving to the north east part of the current restoration, a whole load of stuff, looking suspiciously clay like, has been dumped in a wet area that used to be the north east shore of Cormorant lake (south). This area used to be mudflats, much loved by wild fowl. It now takes an awful lot of run off from the north east part of the site and the ridges.

More spoils has been dumped around the edge of the new wetland, curving round to the north shore of the new elongated Manor lake, extending almost to the pump station. All this spoil has a look of clay about them, and appear to have been dumped this week, as they have not dried out in the heatwave.  Had they been dumped last week, they would be dry and cracked.

Moving westward from the pump station, I noticed that Inert have bulldozed a series of wide 'paths' (basically a blades width) all running parallel in a north-south manner. These 'paths' go across the width of the new, elongated Manor lake. I wonder if this is represents the first steps in Inert having to dig out the stuff they previously dumped to produce Manor lake.