Red River mineral pollution challenge for Partech

The Partech Instruments WaterWatch water quality monitoring station technology has been selected by the Environment Agency for its Red River Pilot Passive Treatment Study in Cornwall

The Partech Instruments WaterWatch water quality monitoring station technology has been selected by the Environment Agency for its Red River Pilot Passive Treatment Study in Cornwall.

This study forms part of the EU funded Cycleau project.

For centuries the Red River in Cornwall has been contaminated with minerals from the local tin mining industry, which used it as a means of disposing of mine water and mineral processing effluents.

Now, as part of the Cycleau Project, the Red River is the subject of a new approach to the passive treatment of metal contaminated watercourses.

A key element in evaluating the success of the project involves the use of multi-parameter water instrumentation for monitoring raw water prior to, during and after treatment.

Sited adjacent to the river, six Partech WaterWatch monitoring stations measure pH, Redox, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity and Turbidity, simultaneously, using a single flow cell containing up to five different sensors.

The WaterWatch station also incorporate a GPRS modem which transmits results and alarm conditions to EA field operatives and Partech Instruments.

Classified as an "industrial drain" until the 1960s, the Red River has undergone many modifications and very little, if any, of the river can be considered to be in a truly natural condition.

As a result of its use by the mining industry, it has led to contamination of the sediments that form and surround the bed of the river.

Now, following the demise of the mining and mineral industries in Cornwall, the Red River, which flows into St Ives Bay, has started to regenerate: and important areas of ecology and biodiversity are becoming established.

The passive treatment process uses sealed beds of limestone to increase alkalinity and to remove copper, and reed beds to enhance the removal of other metals through co-removal with ochre.

Using the WaterWatch monitoring station, the EA will have an accurate and constant picture of the physico-chemical conditions at key stages throughout the treatment process.

The Partech WaterWatch offers a simple and practical way of monitoring several parameters in a secure stand alone package.

Constructed for external locations, it is packaged to be unobtrusive, resistant to vandalism and to withstand installation in an exposed location.

The EA Red River Treatment Study is scheduled to run until November 2006 and includes ecological enhancement of the local nature reserve on which it is being carried out.

In addition to Cornwall's Red River, there are related projects looking at the rivers Axe, Char, Dart, Exe, Fal, Fowey, Helford, Slapton Ley and Teign in the UK, Moy in Ireland and Belon and Le Payre in France.

If successful, this method of treatment could be used in similar situations where metal pollution affects water quality.

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