New Cumbria water treatment facility to kickstart wildlife tourism

A new water treatment facility in Cumbria could bring a welcome boost to the local economy.

The Force Crag Mine water treatment scheme is now in operation in the hills near Keswick, where it will clean a six-mile stretch of river to prevent up to a tonne of metals such as zinc, lead and cadmium from entering Bassenthwaite Lake.

The facility, which could stimulate tourism and the local economy by bringing £4.9m in environmental benefits to the water and wildlife of Keswick, forms part of the Government’s £8.5m plan to tackle metal pollution in England’s rivers.

Water Minister Rory Stewart, who officially opened the new centre on Friday (November 20), said: “I’m delighted to be here today in the incredible Cumbrian hills to open Europe’s first treatment scheme, using the natural environment to clean metal-rich water from the Force Crag abandoned mine.

“This will improve local water quality while still maintaining the beauty of this truly unique site.”

The centre was developed in partnership with a number of organisations, including the National Trust, the Lake District National Park Authority and the Coal Authority.

Stephen Dingle, chair of the Coal Authority, commented: “Our experts prevent and treat water pollution from Britain’s abandoned coal and metal mines, managing over 70 mine water treatment schemes to protect and improve over 350km of rivers. We also prevent important sources of drinking water from being polluted.

“Working with our partners we’ve now built and are managing our first ever passive metal mine water treatment scheme to address the pollution which comes from Force Crag Mine in the Lake District National Park.”

He continued: “The scheme has been carefully designed to be consistent with the beautiful surroundings and address this major source of metal pollution, which affects Bassenthwaite Lake and other local watercourses.

“We are delighted with its excellent performance in removing in excess of 95% of the metals from the mine water.”

A team from Newcastle University created the water treatment concept in use at Force Crag following 10 years of research and development.