Map

Rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines in England

Map showing the rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines in England, including where measures are in place to manage this pollution.

Documents

Rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines in England

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Details

This map shows the rivers in England that are polluted by at least one metal, which includes cadmium, lead, zinc, copper, nickel, arsenic and iron, due to abandoned metal mines.

These rivers are marked in the colour purple.

The Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme manages several measures to limit the amount of metals entering rivers, and the approximate location of these are shown as green circles.

Three mine water treatment schemes are labelled.

There are several measures to control diffuse pollution from mine wastes in the North Pennines, these are also indicated by green circles.

Known mine water discharges are shown as a black cross inside a red circle.

Black triangles show abandoned mine waste sites that are causing serious environmental harm.

Published 21 February 2020