Ashfoldside Beck
Water quality improvement project
Around 44km of rivers in the Nidd catchment are polluted by metals and waste minerals released from long-abandoned metal mines.
Project Overview
Britain’s abandoned metal mines have left a lasting legacy of pollution.
Water draining from historic mines carries toxic metals that contaminate rivers and threaten aquatic life across the UK.
A water quality improvement project
This project aims to tackle the heavy metal pollution caused by historic lead mining in the River Nidd catchment. By working with partners, it aims to develop effective remediation strategies at the Providence and Prosperous mine sites.
These interventions will help reduce contaminated water entering the river, improve water quality, and support the long-term restoration of the aquatic ecosystem.
Historic lead mining pollutes River Nidd
Heavy metal pollution from historic mining activity along
Ashfoldside Beck in Nidderdale continues to damage the river’s health and biodiversity. Elevated levels of toxic metals such as
lead, zinc, and cadmium have been recorded by the Environment Agency, posing serious risks to
fish populations, freshwater invertebrates and the overall aquatic ecosystem. This water pollution doesn’t stop at the beck itself - its effects travel downstream, contributing to long-term
river contamination and impacting water quality as far south as
Knaresborough.
The techniques being used within this project to address pollution from historic metal mining were developed and refined through our Tees Swale diffuse metal pollution project.
The Ashfoldside Beck project is joint funded by the Water Restoration Fund administered by the Rural Payments Agency and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) through the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) programme, a partnership with the Environment Agency and the Mining Remediation Authority. We are working with the WAMM programme, Nidderdale National Landscape and local landowners to deliver this project. The work on Ashfoldside Beck will improve the water quality in the Nidd catchment, and support meeting the government’s Environment Act target to halve the length of rivers polluted by harmful metals from abandoned metal mines by 2038.
