MINEWATER TREATMENT IN NEATH PORT TALBOT.

Abstract

The valleys of Neath and Port Talbot have borne the effect of several of the most serious polluting discharges from abandoned coal mines in Britain. This type of pollution is occurring elsewhere across the coalfields of Britain following the colliery closures of recent years and is the source of contamination for hundreds of miles of river and other watercourses, including water otherwise intended for industrial and household abstraction. This paper explains the cause of minewater contamination and uses as examples the River Pelenna Minewater Project and the Ynysarwed Minewater Project to demonstrate the proactive, coordinating role that the local authority can take in resolving such problems sustainably in the interests of the local community, the wider environment and the economy. The different characters of the two discharges and their immediate environs have raised significantly different civil engineering design, finance and construction challenges in marrying together the demands of environmental science, process flow engineering, land availability, topography, ground conditions, access, aesthetics and seasonal working within the context of local planning authority and Environment Agency constraints.