Minewater remediation in the United Kingdom

The author will outline the history of minewater remediation in the UK with special reference to investigations and construction schemes undertaken by SRK in England, Scotland and Wales over the past seven years. The influence of mining and geology on the waters, the flow of minewater and its discharge location, and then the subsequent choice of remediation methodology, site and construction option will be examined at specific sites. At Polkemmet Colliery in Scotland rising minewater was prevented from discharging in an uncontrolled manner by installing pumps into an old mine shaft and constructing a semi-active treatment plant on site before discharging the water to a nearby stream. Edmondsley remediation scheme in County Durham involves the treatment of a ferruginous discharge from a drainage adit by the pumping of minewater through a woodland nature reserve up to a three cell wetland, and then by gravity return to a nearby stream. In Derbyshire, the Fender scheme has recently been constructed and involves treatment through reedbeds sited on former colliery and ironworks tips with the water first being pumped across an existing river from shafts sited in the yard of a factory unit. At Blaenavon construction has recently commenced. The scheme involves the capture and piping of two ferruginous minewater flows underground and then treatment through reedbeds. The water flows through Big Pit, a former mine reopened to the public as a tourist attraction.