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A sinister green substance – described by at least one islander as looking "very toxic" – was spotted yesterday in St. Brelade.
If you were to take a quick glance at the news recently, you would be forgiven for thinking that Jersey is slowly and surely becoming overwhelmed by toxic waste.
Just yesterday, amidst all the talk of towering mounds La Colette and PFAS, one islander reported seeing a suspicious fluorescent green splurge in the sea by the desalination plant at La Corbière.
Pictured: Are we all doomed?
Posting in the St. Brelade Parishoners Facebook group, Penny Fogarty desperately appealed for answers from the parish community asking: "Can anyone tell me what's happening here?"
She added: "It looks very toxic to me."
No colour says 'toxic' like fluorescent green.
Pictured: "Can anyone tell me what's happening here?"
Jumping to reassure this justifiably concerned citizen, the good folk of St. Brelade pointed out that the bright green gunge-like spectre was likely to be fluorescein, a dye used to test water flow.
As if on cue, Jersey Water came to the rescue, tweeting that they were indeed using fluorescent dye to locate a 1960s sub-sea tunnel entrance as part of their plans to upgrade the desalination plant.
We’ve been conducting tests off the headland near the desalination plant with @GovJersey and @PortsofJersey to locate a 1960s sub-sea tunnel entrance.
— Jersey Water (@JerseyWater) April 20, 2023
You may see a temporary patch of green off the shoreline as we used fluorescent tracing dye and an overhead drone to find it. pic.twitter.com/GQSXKJeyiy
They also added that the dye doesn't pose any health or environmental risks, is biodegradable and disperses quickly.
Thankfully, then, it doesn't look like Godzilla will be emerging from Corbière any time soon.
Mark Manton, Head of Production Operations, said:
“The exercise was successful in locating the precise entrance to the submerged seawater tunnel. It was a great team effort from Jersey Water, Ports of Jersey and the Infrastructure and Environment Department.
"Being able to assess the condition of the tunnel entry point is a crucial stage for us in developing our designs for increasing the desalination plant’s capacity, to ensure future water resources for the Island.
We used a safe, biodegradable green dye to highlight the tunnel entrance. Using fluorescent dye in this way is common practice in exploratory environmental studies so the public should not be concerned if they see any residual green seawater in the area. It is not in any way harmful to the environment or marine habitat and soon dissipates.“
Ports of Jersey’s Electro-mechanical Team Leader, Darren Roberts, said:
“We were pleased to support this project by going out on one of our RIBs and using our Remotely Operated Vehicle for underwater survey work.”
Pictured: The temporary patch of testing dye. (Jersey Water)
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