Leaky Dams Water Sampling Update
As outlined in a previous News article SuDS+ have been fortunate to have Ellis a student at Newcastle University undertake some water sampling for us. Over the last month 3 samples have been taken on different days and Ellis is starting to look at patterns in the results. His report so far is below.
Water quality monitoring of the SuDS+ features along the upper Stanley/Twizell Burn is coming along nicely; 3 rounds of samples have been taken so far with some consistent trends found for iron and nitrate concentrations. None of the samples so far have returned reading which would be detrimental to health but other contaminants are found in the water mostly relating to human interference in the ecosystem.
The data collected so far does seem to show that the wetland and leaky barriers reduce the concentration of the measured pollutants to some degree. However the most recent set of data collected under the “wettest” conditions so far during the monitoring shows chloride and conductivity levels increase from the source of the burn to the final leaky barrier. This part of the latest set of data does buck the trend seen in the first 2 sets of samples, however as the monitoring continues into a more diverse range of hydrological and weather conditions some light may be shed onto why this increase in chloride has been observed.
A final word from Ellis “It’s been quite nice collecting and testing the water samples so far, it looks like we’re on track to draw some useful and interesting conclusions. It’s also great to think that those findings could be used to inform future projects in the SuDS+ area.”
