Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department has made on the reduction of levels of pollution caused by harmful metals from abandoned mines in rivers.

The Defra Sponsored Water & Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) Programme was established in 2011 in partnership with the Environment Agency and the Coal Authority. The programme currently operates three mine water treatment schemes which tackle the pollution caused by contaminated groundwater flowing out of drainage tunnels dug by the miners. These schemes decrease pollution levels in 20Km of rivers by capturing around 140 tonnes of the Environment Act target substances each year along with about 600 tonnes of iron. A number of diffuse interventions have also been completed to tackle the pollution caused by rainfall washing metals out of contaminated wastes the miners left at the surface. These interventions are designed to decrease pollution levels in a further 80km of rivers.

The new legally binding abandoned metal mines water target will deliver a ten-fold increase in the WAMM programme, upscaling the existing three treatment schemes with 40 more by 2038, to tackle pollution by six substances: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc. Collectively, these have been referred to as “harmful metals”. The delivery plan for this target is outlined on page 119 of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Two new mine water treatment schemes are under construction and will start operating in 2023 (the Nent Haggs scheme in the North East and the Coombe scheme in Cornwall).

More information on the WAMM Programme can be found at the .GOV pages on Metal Mine Water Treatment and Cleaning up rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines.