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Creating a better place

Cleaning up rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Environment Agency
The Force Crag mine water treatment ponds, Lake District. Photo by John Malley.

The problems facing water are complex, with multiple sources of pollution affecting water quality. One of the lesser-known areas of the Environment Agency’s work is cleaning up pollution from abandoned metal mines.
Mining played a major part in Britain’s rich industrial history, but this also left thousands of abandoned mines scattered across our landscape. Almost all these mines had closed by the early 1900s but they are still releasing harmful metals including lead, cadmium and copper. This is one of the top 10 issues for water quality in England as it harms fish and river insects. Abandoned mines are the largest source of metals to British rivers and seas (click here for more information). Pollution is localised to about 1,500km of rivers - mainly in the North East, Cumbria, Yorkshire & Cornwall.

How Wiltshire farmers are helping to 'clean up' water in the Kennet catchment

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Fisheries and biodiversity, Water

Charlotte Hitchmough and Rupert Kelton from Action for the River Kennet talk about a project to improve river water quality and create new wetland habitat in a sub-catchment of the Kennet in Wiltshire. The Sparkling Streams project has repurposed an …