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Mine Water Pollution
Saltburn residents have taken the first steps towards finding a solution to a mining problem that is staining their town.
The Saltburn Gill Action Group has received £3,500 from the Environment Agency to employ experts to help investigate how best to prevent or treat mine water flowing into a trout beck and turning the town’s Saltburn Gill a rusty ochre colour.
Although the group knows that polluted water is discharging from the abandoned mine workings close to North Skelton, it needs to understand the extent of the problem before it looks for a permanent solution.
Environment Agency officer and Saltburn resident Don Mason said: “The mine water pollution at Saltburn is one of the worst cases in the UK of its type, and in some areas it has choked all but the most hardy species in the stream.”
“This problem is as a result of our industrial heritage but the Environment Agency’s funding will help the town take its first step towards finding a solution.”
Residents first noticed a problem in 1999 when ochre-coloured water started to discharge into the beck within ancient woodland which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The water, which also flows into Skelton Beck through Valley Gardens Park and on to a bathing beach, is not toxic but it does contain very high levels of dissolved iron.
Don said his tests show that one litre of the water contains around 1.2 grammes of iron which means that around 300 kilogrammes of iron, or a third of a tonne is deposited into the bed of the beck, every 24 hours.
Unlike pollution from coal mine workings, no one is legally responsible for mine water pollution and no funding is available nationally to deal with it.
Once experts have analysed the problem, the next stage is to look at potential solutions. Options could include adding chemicals to remove the iron as quickly as possible, or creating specialised reedbeds to filter the water. However the beds need to be the size of many football pitches to deal with Saltburn’s problem, and any solution is likely to cost millions of pounds.
Jim Wingham, chairman of the Saltburn Action Group said: “This is the community in action. It is the first substantive step towards finding a lasting solution to a serious pollution problem which has not only impacted on our environment but has the potential to impact on the town’s tourism“
The group also received £1,000 towards the investigation from Saltburn Parish Council.
The ochre colour in the mine water is due to minerals being exposed to oxygen during mining. During the 18th and 19th century, the region was the biggest ironstone processing area in the world.
During mining, water is pumped out, but in 1964 the last pumps were turned off at the North Skelton mine. Since then water levels have risen once again and have now broken out at the surface, bringing the oxidised iron with it.