3rd August
a Famous national newspaper, a False premise, Far-distant Future proofing, Flocculation, unFair blame on Farmers, Flood resilience … yes it is a week full of F words …
This is a mock-up, in which I have taken the liberty of adding my own image and commentary to your headline on 1st August. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/01/cornish-conservation-charity-launches-major-tor-to-shore-rewilding-project
The most observant amongst you lovely readers will have noticed my penchant for frequent alliterative weekly headlines. This time, although I am not typing that best-known F word, I am thinking it. What the F is going on here? A top national newspaper, one I support for the impressive quality of its environmental journalism, has been hood-winked into ‘swallowing whole’ a press-release, which leaves out half of the story. And a very important half it is!
The proposed Tor to Shore project concerns this area, which I describe regularly. It starts high on the east of Par River catchment, a few miles north of Meadow Barns, but will also impact the wider expanses to the west, flowing through a unique World Heritage Site for mining and quarrying of Cornish Minerals. It is a UNESCO supported site that can provide a very different, but potentially much more sophisticated answer with ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ for cleaning up the river and managing flood risks.
The photo above is one of my own, snapped in the Red Moor nature reserve a month ago. The very name tells you what is happening here – red moorland, contaminated with metal waste.
Here is an even brighter illustration in another local stream:-
Beneath the ponds and paths at Red Moor is an historic landscape of tin streaming and deeper tin shafts. The water is still contaminated with metals, seemingly a lot of orange-tinged iron oxide, but we know there will be a range of others – most often lead and arsenic sit beside tin. Not to mention, of course, the Indium I wrote about last week.
Now, if this charity is so responsible in its management and development of the natural landscape would you not have expected them to be curious and ambitious enough to investigate methods for removal of the metals from their ponds? After all, besides the skill of our Cornish mine engineers at extracting metals, today they have advanced knowledge of remediation techniques as well. I think of the famous Red River work at Wheal Jane, described in past blogs and supervised by Wardell Armstrong, amongst others (remember my visit there for a Business Breakfast a month back?)
https://www.wardell-armstrong.com/retreatment-of-historic-tailings-and-low-grade-stockpiles/
A World Heritage Site with 4 elements of Outstanding Universal Value
This past 7 days I have continued exploring and recording for our 3rd film about water in this catchment. The high point was a walk that – for now at least – contains our most advanced, ambitious, up to date conclusions regarding management of silt. But it also brings in another F word, Flocculation, for removing contaminants. David M, a young employee of the Rivers Trust (who usually seek to work collaboratively, e.g. with the EA and Wildlife Trust), put this word into my mind a couple of years back. He looked at our amazing and unique Divisions and Stilling tank, and pondered aloud, that it could become a place to develop such a treatment process.
Flocculation, for the layman is ‘Clumping’
a process by which a chemical coagulant added to the water acts to facilitate bonding between particles, creating larger aggregates that are easier to separate. The method is widely used in water treatment plants and can also be applied to sample processing for monitoring applications.
See also this article, https://www.dober.com/haloklear/resources/intern-view-how-flocculation-helps-filtration
Don’t you love the fun fact that flocculation is used in making cheese?! But I also love the potential it offers, to clean up water via heritage restoration, rather than rewilding.
Other contaminants
The Guardian piece reveals that our Wildlife Trust adopts the all-too-common and unfair trend of putting blame on farmers, saying they cause pollution of nitrates and phosphates in the river. Yet when you meet these same farmers, and realise they form a network of highly intelligent and responsible landowners, it is only right to investigate their alternative ideas … now coming through in our ‘Route to 2039’ films. It is a route grounded in generations of experience, rather than theoretical ideology. I know which I trust!
Let’s scrutinise those agricultural contaminants, more carefully. I believe they are a tiny element within a bigger story, about a South West Water sewage treatment plant, which is increasingly overwhelmed by having to take waste from a large new housing estate, given the posh name West Carclaze Garden Village (previously called an Eco Town). Their sales promotions boasts:-
West Carclaze Garden Village is one of the first new Garden Villages in a generation, enhanced with 21st Century technologies, thinking and ideas, and developed in harmony with existing communities and local culture.
Every home will be at the leading edge of energy efficiency and sustainability, with clever but discrete technology generating power and managing the temperature and air quality, so that you can live healthy, happy lives with a clear conscience.
What this omits to mention is water and waste – there should be a reedbed treatment system plus grey and rainwater harvesting, e.g. a completely new, environmentally responsible approach. But no, all the infrastructure is old. There is just a small plant behind Luxulyan, which was already struggling to cope before this development. At the relevant time in 2022, high levels of nitrates and phosphates were regularly reported by volunteer Citizen Scientists for the valley. https://www.luxulyanvalley.co.uk/the-valley/water-quality-monitoring/
In case you can’t make out Joan Farmer’s commentary it says ‘analysis from 3 sites show that 2 locations have Very High Risk/Unsafe levels of E.coli and Very Unsafe levels of total Coliforms, as defined by the USA Health Risk Category for Recreational Water.’
This is the most up to date set of results shown on the website and I do not know why the publication of data stopped in the autumn of 2022. The timing is a bit suspicious really. Here is info about the first residents moving in that same summer:-
One of the biggest housing developments in Cornwall, which will eventually have 1,500 homes, has started to welcome its first residents. West Carclaze Garden Village, on the outskirts of St Austell, is a major scheme using former clay works land to create a new community.
Work is continuing on the first phase of the development close to Penwithick, while work is also starting on a second phase of the works on the other side of the new road built to connect the garden village with St Austell.
There have been some concerns locally about what is, effectively, a whole new village including the provision of facilities …
We are now 2 years down the line with many, many more people living at W Carclaze and hence it would not be a surprise to find even worse levels of nitrates and phosphates. The sewage plant cannot cope, it is working at full tilt, 24/7 causing a noise nuisance. There are regular comments on the community FB page – INFO ONLY on 4th June 2024:-
If there’s any residents who are affected by increased noise from the Sewage Treatment Plant at present, please read SWW response below (received by Cornwall Council Environmental Department).
“We have been informed that there has been an issue with the Luxulyan Sewage Treatment works which is requiring them to undertake additional site operations which involves the use of additional equipment and processes. Their response goes on to say that this issue is anticipated to be resolved by the end of this month. In the meantime, they have informed they will be switching off non-essential generators and other equipment overnight.”
Whether running through the night or not, the constant to-ing and fro-ing of lorries would indicate there still is a problem and it won’t be going away any time soon.
Farmers stand together
12 months ago I interviewed a collection of locals about the idea of beavers and re-wilding on their farms. For the most part, they do not want re-wilding because they remember the beauty of a functioning leat system and that is their preference as a remedy for the future. Give it a few more days and the entire Film 3 will be up, with full explanation.
Their message says “Restored leat please, not the mounds of silt, undergrowth and loss of productive land”
They also raised very valid concerns about biosecurity, asking ‘will beavers become the new disease nightmare, similar to badgers and TB?’
We find little reassurance online. Farmer’s Weekly reports on the situation in Scotland
“Beavers in the wrong areas are proven to cause significant and costly agricultural damage, so where mitigation and trapping measures fail, dam removal and lethal control must remain an option to prevent serious damage before it occurs.”
This is about England, from https://beaversinengland.com/reintroductions/beaver-borne-diseases-and-quarantine/
3 independent studies commissioned by the statutory nature conservation bodies for Scotland, England and Wales have all examined the potential for disease transmission from reintroduced beaver populations. All have concluded that there is no significant risk if basic health screening is undertaken in quarantine. The recent identification of the parasite Echinococcus multilocularis in an imported beaver in captivity in Devon does illustrate that there is potential for other conditions to arise. This disease is not known to exist in Britain and is transmitted by infected carnivores to other host species, which cannot transmit the disease until they die and are consumed by a predator. Dogs and foxes are the most common agents of dispersal. Any captive bred beavers currently in the UK will therefore be clear of the condition and there are range states within Europe where it does not currently exist.
The law states that any beavers entering the British Isles which are wild caught as opposed to captive bred must undergo a 6 month quarantine period for rabies. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland have developed a comprehensive health screening process for beavers and are now well positioned to advise on any arising issues. Their husbandry guideline provides in depth detail regarding this subject.
Is that very reassuring? Not really. Then there is this, close to home: – https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/research/microsites/creww/riverottertrial/ROBT_CS_6_Conflict_between_landowners_experiencing_beaver_activity.pdf
Here you notice the need to protect crops, but also trees. Our valley has a gorgeous canopy of mature broad-leaved trees, but also many of lesser size, more recently planted. In one area willow is harvested for making baskets and charcoal. Our Meadow Barns colleague, with relevant experience to share, has prepared a couple of pages, explaining what the longer-term impact is likely to be. Thank you for this David, it reinforces why we must put in an urgent request to UNESCO for an ‘Impact Assessment’ of the proposed re-wilding.
There is much more I should like to share, ref the potential of our farmers forming their own ‘Network’ to resist wrong-headed projects and put forward many new ideas of their own. These concepts are at a very early stage of development, but will be explored in Films 4 and 5 over the next month.
Flood and Climate Resilience report
The television presenter, Tom Heap, who is best known for his contributions to BBC’s ‘Countryfile’ impressed me greatly as the main voice of the Radio 4 series, 39 ways to save the planet. I see he is also known for fronting up The Climate Show for Sky. Today I again appreciated his style, at the helm of a new programme, called ‘Rare Earth, how to flood-proof a city’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vbt0
This whole broadcast is really worthy of your time, but the bit I was caught into particularly, was the section on flooding in a report commissioned by the Mayor of London – https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/climate-change/climate-adaptation/london-climate-resilience-review
“This excellent report makes clear that everybody who lives and works in London, including communities, companies and governments, need to contribute to the task of making London more resilient to the growing impacts of climate change.”
Rather than give you the official list of bullet points for action, which are pretty depressing, let me flag up a few of the ones I heard, aiming for a more hopeful tone, eventually:-
- Only 7 % of Thames riverbank defences through the city will be fit for purpose by 2050 – this is primarily due to the expected sea level rise of at least 1 metre. But it is a complex scenario, given predictions of falling levels for some ground across southern England.
- Deadlines have been set for upgrading flood defences. Upstream of the Thames Barrier it is 2050, and downstream it is 2040; a new Barrier is needed by 2070.
- Flood risk comes not only from the river, but also extreme rainfall and storms, which overwhelm the old Victorian drain system. A contributory factor has been miles upon miles of paved areas, concreted over. The report calls for removal of as much of those as possible, replacing with “rain gardens”, alongside the river and more widely.
- They also refer to a Welsh scheme called “RainScape” – Welsh Water’s approach to managing surface water and reducing sewer flooding by separating rainwater from the existing system, slowing down the rate it enters the network and by redirecting it to local rivers and watercourses, and in some cases, removing it completely. https://corporate.dwrcymru.com/en/community/environment/our-projects/rainscape
- Back to London, where there’s a vision for creating beautiful green spaces, but all must be at least 1 metre higher than today’s ground level.
- If we start today, allocating c £16 billion between now and 2100 (front-loaded though), the value in benefit for homeowners, let alone businesses, is estimated to be in excess of £300 billion!
An alternative, much earlier dated report that sets out the challenges very well is a student project called “London-under-Sea” by Daisy Hayward at Greenwich Uni – https://www.greenwichsu.co.uk/sustainabilityhub/projects/fellowships/london-under-sea/
Daisy’s report is full of very interesting history and a counter argument about the date of replacing the barrier. It sounds so exciting and brilliant, but can we trust this source? It is definitely advertised on the relevant architect’s website, but if it is real why would the London Mayor omit mention of it?
https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/thames-hub
While the Environment Agency might not think we need a new barrier until 2070, there is a growing body of professionals who think we do.
The architects Foster + Partners and engineers Halcow have been busy progressing plans for a new barrier, called the Spine in the Thames Estuary. Huw Thomas, of Fosters says, “The Environment Agency somehow estimate that the current barrier will protect London until 2070 but that’s based on what we know now, it doesn’t incorporate what we may learn in the future. At the moment the Thames Barrier just protects London’s core, but the Spine will also protect the eastern areas beyond Woolwich into which London will inevitably expand.”
Fosters and Halcrow are proposing a new barrier between Tilbury in Essex and the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, approximately 30 miles downstream from the current barrier. The Spine forms part of the ambitious Thames Hub infrastructure integration programme, which seeks to facilitate comprehensive urban regeneration and expansion across the Thames Gateway. The £50bn Thames Hub project comprises an international airport, railway terminus, freight depot, port, tens of thousands of new homes, along with the new flood barrier.
And a little later – The new barrier is designed to perform multiple functions. Hydropower generators integrated into the barrier and a floating hydropower array located in the water beside it could generate up to 525GWh of renewable energy per year – potentially enough to power 76,000 of the households earmarked for the Thames Gateway. New road and rail links will also be built into the foundations of the barrier, offering a new connection across the Estuary.
According to Thomas, “With our strengthening economy we’re perhaps unique in Europe at the moment in having the opportunity to use this new barrier to help create a total, integrated economy. We could really do something extraordinary.”
