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Creating a better place

Tackling the metal pollution legacy of Britain’s mining history

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Environment Agency
Photograph showing contaminated water flowing out of an old mine entrance built more than one hundred years ago.

Metal mines played a major part in Britain’s history, but these abandoned mines are the largest source of metals to our rivers and seas which can seriously harm aquatic life such as fish and river-flies. Hugh Potter, the Environment Agency’s Water and Abandoned Metal Mines lead, looks at the action being taken to address the legacy.