Clean Rivers Trust has carried out a remarkable number of projects in the Forest of Dean.
The first involved a perceived pollution risk to water supplies from pollutants that had been deposited in the 1950s through to the 1970s down an old iron mine shaft. The next which went on for nearly four years proved that the groundwater in a part of the Forest was as good or better quality for certain products than most other parts of the UK. Again this source was an old drainage mine shaft.
The work required water sampling and contamination surveys not just locally but where ever the multinational company considered another possible location for the manufacture of their product. These researches covered the UK from Cornwall to Scotland. The factory using this water has grown from a dwindling workforce of 200 to now employing over 2000.
We worked with the Deputy Gavellor (the Queens Representative) in locating and the decontaminating of the His Majesty’s Chemical Works, which had made poison gas in the First World War and printing inks for Bank of England banknotes in the 1960s. The site was acidic and had minewater seeps running through it as well.
The Environment Agency commissioned a survey of all perceived contaminated land issues in the Forest of Dean from the Trust.
Contaminated land forest of dean part of his majesty’s chemical works
Contaminated land