Case study:Saltburn Gill ironstones mines

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Location: 54° 34' 19.07" N, 0° 57' 36.96" W

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site
Themes	Economic aspects, Social benefits, Water quality
Country	England
Main contact forename	Peter
Main contact surname	Aldred
Main contact user ID
Contact organisation	Environment Agency
Contact organisation web site	http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/
Partner organisations	Environment Agency, DEFRA, The Coal Authority (UK)
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

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Project summary

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This on-going project targets a section of the Saltburn Gill that was negatively impacted by Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from abandoned mine workings, located upstream of the discharge point. Historically, East Cleveland was a major source of ore for the Teesside iron and steel industry, specially from the 1850’s until the early 1960’s. Afterwards, the decline of the mining activity resulted in an uncontrolled abandonment of the working mines in within the region.

In 1999, the mine discharge rose the typical iron levels of the Saltburn Beck from around 0.1 milligrammes per litre (mg/l) to in excess of 1200mg/l. Over 330kg of iron ochre is deposited on the stream bed every day. In one year, this is the equivalent of over 100 tonnes of iron into the North Sea. The devastating effects on the ecology readily appeared, mainly due to the drastic depletion in the oxygen levels. A biological impact survey of the stream showed that the pollution reduced the water quality of the beck from good to bad status along to 2 km of the watercourse from the discharge point to the sea.

The Saltburn Gill Action Group (SGAG) was set up in 2005 as a community action group. Assistance was given by The Environment Agency, Teesside University, the local Wildlife Trust, the Parish Council and others to try to find a solution to this problem. Then, several site investigations were carried out with insights to build up a treatment plant.

Funding from DEFRA and the Environment Agency allowed the development of a treatment scheme and construction started in December 2012. This will involve a large pumping borehole into the mine workings and settlement ponds and reed beds. It is expected to start pumping in the spring or early summer of 2013 and final drying up of the polluting discharge and construction of the final parts of the scheme may not happen until 2014-15.

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Catchment and subcatchment

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Site

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Name	Saltburn Gill Nature Reserve
WFD water body codes	GB103025071960
WFD (national) typology	Low, Small, Calcareous
WFD water body name	Saltburn Gill Catch trib of North Sea
Pre-project morphology
Reference morphology
Desired post project morphology
Heavily modified water body	No
National/international site designation	UK - Site of Special Scientific Interest
Local/regional site designations
Protected species present	No
Invasive species present	No
Species of interest
Dominant hydrology
Dominant substrate
River corridor land use
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Average bankfull channel width (m)
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Project background

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Reach length directly affected (m)
Project started	2009/07/01
Works started	2012/12/03
Works completed
Project completed
Total cost category
Total cost (k€)	700000700,000 k€ <br />700,000,000 € <br />
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Reasons for river restoration

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Mitigation of a pressure	Pollution incident
Hydromorphology	Quantity & dynamics of flow
Biology
Physico-chemical	Oxygen balance, PH
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Measures

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Structural measures
Bank/bed modifications
Floodplain / River corridor
Planform / Channel pattern
Other	Construction of a Treatment Plant
Non-structural measures
Management interventions
Social measures (incl. engagement)
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