posted on Jan, 25 2024 @ 06:09 AM
Grangemouth my home town, I know a lot about the refinery and how it has changed over the years
as many of my family and friends have worked there for decades.
My uncle John was a firefighter in the BP at the site and we'd often get school visits to the BP to see what it was all about. Also in highschool we;d
get a lot of trips for chemistry class. to the BP and ICI
I remember then they built the hyrdrocracker and would often marvel at the size of the flare stack when they burned it off on a shutdown I think we
tried to measure its height in comparison to a block of flats and it must have been about 4 stories high, I remember when a man nearly fell to his
death and had to be airlifted to the nearby inchyra park luckily he was wearing a harness and was dangling on the side of the tower upside down. I
also remember the various times parts of it exploded.
I dont suffer any known health affects from living there and neither do my school friends or their children so who knows. Nearly all of my school
friends still live there with their families and I try to visit as often as I can.
although I joke that we all had our extra limbs removed before we left the town.
the port of Grangemouth where my grandfather and father worked until retirement is now to be a freeport
no longer to be owned by forth ports plc. But If I recall they are keeping the terminal where ships can unload the fuel or other processing elements
that were brought in or went out by ship.
The port also holds scotlands largest container terminal
Im sure that Ineos would be better of investing heavily into modifications to allow for processing of other fuel sources
such as LNG to keep the plant operating just as shell did with most of their petrochemical plants, if it were to shut down the site couldnt be used
for at least another 100 years due to the industrial contamination.
always baffled me why the residents of grangemouth had to pay the same fuel prices given the proximity to the only refinery. but profit is profit.
Grangemouth being built initially for the canal /shipping industry to serve as an industrial town and many thought that would be the end when the
canal closed etc, but it was then redeveloped for the refinery etc
so I assume it will do the same , just redevelop for another industry.
Grangemouth's population is no where near 80K
its closer to 17-18K
As for the terrorists and boness road, the BP /Ineos site was surrounded by an 18ft high electrical fence since
9/11 i think
I remember taking a flying lesson with my grandfather from Edinburgh turnhouse on my 16th birthday to fly over grangemouth and there is a no fly zone
over the whole site
Im sure there is also RAF on stand by should anyone show up on radar as being on a questionable flight path
I remember the debate surrounding the new Falkirk stadium after brockville was closed , and that Westfield was too close the BP for the players in
case of a blast , then what is the town of grangemouth doing so close?
makes you wonder.
I was reassured there are redundancies and shut downs all built into the whole thing in case of such events.
Anyway nice to talk about my home town for a bit
the place stinks though since they opened the biomass plant at the port, and the proximity to the recycling plant at polmont hill means lots of flies
in the summer months.
Also the smell that comes from the ICI plant sometimes makes you feel queezy or gives you a sore head.
I remember my 18th birthday and I had an empty , and we all decided to leave the house to goto rendevouz down at la porte precinct , we all walked out
my house on dalgrain road to see a huge mass of purple foam coming through the trees across the road from the ICI plant.
Minutes later 4 white vans showed up and guys in hazmat jumped out and started setting up water hoses to wash it all away.
truly bizarre
I kind of miss it and I kind of dont