Clean Rivers Trust was formed in November 1990 as a response to the declining water quality of the River Trent that was reported by the UK National Rivers Authority’s Report on River Water Quality 1990.
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Working with all concerned, the water regulators and sewage treatment provider, the Trust gained huge expenditure undertakings and an agreed program of clean up. The Trent is now cleaner than it has been since the industrial revolution and the depopulation of the countryside and the concentration of populations in cities and towns.
The Trust has been involved in the remarkable changes across most of the UK’s river improvements since 1991 and has alone responded to over 600 consultation documents issued by the National Rivers Authority; now the Environment Agency, The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the various government departments from DoE, Defra, Dti and Home Office.
Clean Rivers Trust has been at the forefront of the research into methods of ameliorating pollution from abandoned mines, in the UK, Europe and further a field. It published its first report and outlined the concerns at the House of Commons with-in three weeks of Mr Michael Heseltine’s (then President of the Board of Trade) announcement of major UK coal mine closures, in November 1991 and developed close working/research arrangements with Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) and Imperial College London (Royal School of Mines) very shortly afterwards. Ten years of this collaboration was published as ‘Minewater Treatment; Technology, Application and Policy’ by Brown, Barley and Wood and published by the International Water Association in 2002.
The Trust has carried out research across many parts of the country into not just contaminated water but all forms of pollution as they all will eventually impact on the aqueous environment. The issues of land remediation and air pollution play key roles in the research carried out by the organisation. This involves working with, alongside as well as for or recommending to. The Trust is an educational as well as a research trust and as such has worked with universities (to date 31), other seats of higher education and a large number of schools to aid and support research and understanding of the varieties and natures of the water environment and its uses.
The trust every year welcomes many researchers to make use of its unique library that holds stock unavailable elsewhere in Europe. At present the publications held number well over 15,000 and range from all National Rivers Authority and Environment Agency and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency reports from 1990 to 2005; when most were then published to the World Wide Web. The vice county and regional floras of the UK are stocked as well as a good and growing cross section of Middle Eastern and Asian texts. A comprehensive geological and hydrological collection; books by both the British and Scottish Geological Surveys and others are available as are a wide range of books on mining, by region, country and engineering interest.
The library is home to many rare publications and is constantly being added to.
Rivers and other water sources; groundwaters, recyclable process waters, polluted aqueous waste (that may barely resemble water) as well as surface waters are all in the remit of the charity and as such are of constant interest and enquiry. The issues of cleaning up pollution alongside sustainable uses that can both help pay for the decontamination and simultaneously protect the environment from further abstraction are of importance and ongoing research.
In the last ten years the Trust activities have developed outside the UK’s boundaries and it has carried out research in France, Spain, Portugal, Eire, Greece, Cyprus, Yemen, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Niger and Australia.
The Clean Rivers Trust has worked with, advising national governments, regional, county, district and parish councils, the Environment Agency, also special interest groups and even concerned individuals. The organisation has and continues to carry out briefings and due diligence research when requested. The funding for much of the ongoing work is found by carrying out these pieces of consultancy.
The organisation is able to rely on over 70 individuals who are specialists in their fields and are located, working in academic, industrial or consultancy positions around the world.The expertise that the team offers covers amongst other specialties; water decontamination, resource identification/development, sustainable resources, minerals and mining, land and air contamination, national/international law, treaties and regulation. Transport, power generation, agricultural/forestry practises, flooding and its prevention; cartography, planning, both urban ad rural are also covered, as are health issues.
Dr Harvey Wood is the Director of Clean Rivers Trust.
Harvey is a member of the International Water Association Click here to view the international water association
Harvey is a fellow of the RSA Click here to view the RSA Website
He is also a fellow of the geological society Click here to view their website
The Addiss Aababa phase plan1 click here to view
February 2011 Phasing Plans for Clean Rivers trust click here to view it in PDF format
Member of Entrust Membership Number 423246
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