Case study:Millfield Plantation 2

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Location: 51° 58' 54.58" N, 0° 24' 13.71" E

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site	http://http://www.essexrivershub.org.uk/
Themes	Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Water quality
Country	England
Main contact forename	Kieren
Main contact surname	Alexander
Main contact user ID	User:KierenAlexander
Contact organisation	Essex Wildlife Trust
Contact organisation web site	http://http://www.essexwt.org.uk/
Partner organisations
Parent multi-site project	Essex healthy headwaters
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

Back Channel to be restored, River Pant in the foreground

Project summary

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The river restoration project at Millfield plantation builds on the work also being undertaken at Bocking Blackwater local nature reserve, Ironbridge Farm and Plough Hill farm. All the projects are linked both thematically and geographically and are focused on improving the status of the river under the water framework.

Currently the river Pant is failing under WFD, a number of issues have been identified including physical modification, fish passage and both point source and diffuse pollution. This manifests itself in a manner of ways, most notably with a heavily modified channel which has been deepened and in places straightened but most importantly disconnected from its floodplain by large artificial bunds. The land use is predominantly arable and this can lead to some pollution events both diffuse and one of such as oil and other contaminants. It should be noted that Essex and Suffolk water have done a huge amount to improve the status of this river by landowner interaction and education and this project aims to build on this.

After a period of consultation and a professional assessment looking at the feasibility of the project a plan was designed to start improving the water body. This will involve installing a pipe at the mouth of an old channel, we do not know exactly know what the original purpose of this channel was but it is likely to be an old mill race that due to historical management has been increasingly separated from the original channel. However, it now offers a unique chance to reconnect the floodplain and contribute to water quality via the installation of a new 300mm culvert and simple pipe.

This will allow the back channel to go from being inundated a handful of times a year to up to 15 or 16 times. This will only be transitory inundation, we are not planning on installing anything that will hold water back but it should be enough to kick start some changes in the vegetation structure promoting semi-aquatic and marginal vegetation. It will be this vegetation as it develops that allows the water to be filtered, silt will also be given the chance to settle out on the floodplain, further improving the condition of the river and its value to invertebrates and fish.

In addition to the back channel connection there will also be installation of several bits of woody debris further downstream to kick start geomorphological processes in the river such as riffle creation, berms, flow dynamics and some bank erosion. It also has a part to play in diffuse pollution removal by pushing water through soil which removes nitrate via dentrification.

All the consents are now in place for this project and earthworks as due to commence in August 2015, completing soon after. Once complete, we should start to see the benefits in the following winter.

Monitoring surveys and results

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There will be low key monitoring surrounding this project. Fixed point photography will be utilised to monitor any changes in vegetation and land forming.

There will be regular monitoring of riverflies in these reach, an improvement in these may point to an improvement in the water quality in this reach.

Lessons learnt

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The River Pant has low flow issues during the summer, and is also a conduit for the Ely-Ouse transfer system, these must be protected at all costs. Therefore any connection to the floodplain must take this into account. Also, due to the constraints of having to ensure that the landowner can keep access to the surrounding fields we have had to go for a formal connection, in an ideal world we would go for a more informal connection that would offer additional benefits to fish fry and avoid the need for an eel screen to prevent eels from being deposited in the new back channel.

Image gallery

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Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Edit the catchment and subcatchment details (affects all case studies in this subcatchment) Catchment River basin district Anglian River basin Combined Essex Subcatchment River name Pant Area category 10 - 100 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 100 - 200 m Maximum altitude (m) 130130 m <br />0.13 km <br />13,000 cm <br /> Dominant geology Calcareous Ecoregion Great Britain Dominant land cover Arable and Horticulture Waterbody ID GB105037041180 Other case studies in this subcatchment: Ironbridge Farm, Plough Hill Farm Meander and Wet meadow restoration Site Edit site Name Millfield Plantation WFD water body codes GB105037041180 WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pant Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body No National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present Yes Invasive species present Yes Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) Project started 2012/04/01 Works started 2014/08/11 Works completed Project completed Total cost category Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Ess Kieren Alexander Stakeholder engagement and communication Essex Wildlife Trust Kieren Alexander Works and works supervision Essex Wildlife Trust Kieren Alexander Post-project management and maintenance Essex Wildlife Trust Kieren Alexander Monitoring Essex Wildlife Trust Kieren Alexander Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Hydromorphology Biology Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Creation of wooden deflectors Floodplain / River corridor Floodplain reconnection Planform / Channel pattern Introducing large woody debris, silt depositon on the flood plain Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description http://www.essexrivershub.org.uk For more information on this and other projects in Combined Essex catchment Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information