Ebsford Environmental has been appointed as remediation specialists to work with the Coal Authority and Environment Agency on a project to improve up to 60km of rivers in the North Pennines.
Partnering with civil engineering firm JN Bentley, Ebsford will support the firm in developing and executing a safe and environmentally sensitive plan of removing sediment contaminated by metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc left behind from historic lead mining operations upstream.
During a four-week period, Ebsford will deploy specialist equipment to safely remove hundreds of tonnes of sediment that has collected behind a series of sediment traps in the River Nent, at Nenthead, Cumbria.
The traps were installed by Cumbria County Council around 20 years ago. Removing the sediment will help to improve the water quality in the Rivers Nent and South Tyne for local wildlife and minimize downstream movement of sediment to the Tyne estuary.
The environmental impact of this government project, which is jointly funded by Defra and the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Local Growth Fund, has been carefully considered.
To minimize adverse effects from the works, and rapid changes in water levels due to flash floods, Ebsford will temporarily dam and over-pump two stretches of the river to reduce the risk of sediment being washed downstream during removal.