Swildons - Peculiar Aroma

Gerbil007

Member
Had a trot around the short round trip yesterday and noticed quite a strong, chemical type smell, most prevalent from around greasy chimney to the first of the troubles. If I had to take a guess I'd say it was paraffin or paint thinner. It really was quite strong in places.
Anyone else noticed it?
 

Top Cat

New member
Yes, we noticed it too - similar area on 24th January.

Also cigarette smoke at Shatter Pot...but that was due to two guys from Imperial Caving Club...still can't believe he threw his cigarette butt down the shaft...
 

Gerbil007

Member
Yep, reckon diesel is a strong contender. Shame there wasn't a barrel of it at the bottom of shatter pot. Could've given the plonker who lobbed his fag butt down there something to think about!  :eek:
 

Sally-J

New member
We also noticed this coming up to Shatter pot from the mud sump the other weekend. I've never noticed it in Swildons before, what is the likely cause? Leaking from somewhere? Use of a paraffin lamp?
 

andysnook

New member
Was there Sat, I'm almost convinced its turps/white spirit - pretty sure its not diesel.

Strongest just before blue pencil (almost unbearable).  Smell present all through trouble series (there was an oily deposit on some of the puddles here).  We could even smell it a little when down in 4 streamway, but perhaps it was on our suits...
 

Roger W

Well-known member
Sally-J said:
We also noticed this coming up to Shatter pot from the mud sump the other weekend. I've never noticed it in Swildons before, what is the likely cause? Leaking from somewhere? Use of a paraffin lamp?

Does anyone use paraffin lamps for caving these days?

I can remember the guide using a Tilley lamp with a reflector in a show cave in Derbyshire, but that was back in the 1950s...
 

andysnook

New member
Roger W said:
Does anyone use paraffin lamps for caving these days?

I can remember the guide using a Tilley lamp with a reflector in a show cave in Derbyshire, but that was back in the 1950s...

Used tilleys and primus stoves in daren cilau, so fairly used to the smell, dont thinks its that.

Cant think of a single good reason for anyone taking it in, could it really have come from the surface ?
 

Peter Burgess

New member
If it has come from the surface, and it is something like diesel, then it might take a very long time to disperse. I know a site that still smells strongly of diesel 20 or more years after a spill, but admittedly it is a mine with no active streamway.
 

Les W

Active member
There was a pollution incident in Swildons some years ago. The pollutant was not obvious but was very strong on the round trip and in Swildons two.
Subsequent investigations revealed that it was Diesel that had been "dumped" on the Top Green in Priddy and made its way down to Caliper Pot, just off to the side of the Short Round Trip a bit before Glistening Gallery and then carried on to emerge at the heavy drip/inlet just down stream from Sump One. The Diesel was identified by the Environment Agency from samples we took and a bit of detection revealed the rest of the story.
The pollution travelled from the projected dumping place to the cave atmosphere very quickly and circulated throughout the cave on the main draughts, so it pretty much spread everywhere in the cave. The main deposits where into a pool just on the Short Round Trip and in the circulation draught, which aided the spread and duration of the pollution for some weeks.
The Environment Agency gave us special absorbent mats which were floated in the pool and helped to clear up the pollution.

What was astonishing was how little Diesel spread so quickly and lingered for so long.

It didn't smell of diesel at the time, it was the Environment Agency's labs that identified it.
 

Sally-J

New member
Roger W said:
Does anyone use paraffin lamps for caving these days?

Oops I meant stove not lamp, cos I first noticed the smell near a little side chamber you could stop at, not that I've ever seen anyone brewing up tea in Swildons.

Sounds like it's all quite spread out along the passage so more likely to have seeped in from somewhere I guess? I agree it definately seemed like white spirit, I just couldn't work out why that would be down there.
 

Gerbil007

Member
You know what Mick, it could well have been creosote, but again, unless it's seeped in as a a result of some idiot fly-tipping it on the surface, why would it be down there?  :confused:
I'm planning to be in Swildons again tomorrow, but not necessarily on the round trip route. I shall report any more whiffiness.  :yucky:
 

mike barnes

New member
''Oops I meant stove not lamp, cos I first noticed the smell near a little side chamber you could stop at, not that I've ever seen anyone brewing up tea in Swildons.''

Pete Bolt and I used to regularly brew tea and hot chocolate, a real life saver. But we used a hexamine stove, and it was in 12.
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
No peculiar aroma noticed near Shatter Pot but top of Blue Pencil approaching the first Trouble this morning smells distinctly of diesel AND disinfectant. Weird.
 

KevinR

Member
Went as far as Double Troubles Monday evening with 3 farmers! smell noticed after Greasy Chimney. Farmers confirm that it doesn't smell like Diesel, they thought Heating Oil or Turps like smell. - for what it's worth
Kevin
 

Hatstand

New member
yeah it definately wasn't diesel. (I know that well!) General opinion on our trip was that it smelt like a paint shop, so thinners or white spirit... :D
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
Well, we're certainly getting there....

It's either paraffin, paint thinner, turps, white spirit, creosote or heating oil interspersed with tobacco but generally most likely probably not diesel or disinfectant.

Er,... paraspirioilcreothinurps?
 

whitelackington

New member
Gerbil007 said:
You know what Mick, it could well have been creosote, but again, unless it's seeped in as a a result of some idiot fly-tipping it on the surface, why would it be down there?  :confused:
I'm planning to be in Swildons again tomorrow, but not necessarily on the round trip route. I shall report any more whiffiness.  :yucky:
If some persons had creosoted a fence or shed or knocked over said drum of creosote or creosote substitute
then some of it will have seeped into the ground, possibly they may have inadvertently located a new route into Swildons?
Have you looked at the overlay to see the spot on the surface.  Why not turn this event into an opportunity?
 
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