River Aire Pollution Work

Groundwork* is collaborating closely with the Environment Agency to mitigate unplanned or accidental pollution from industrial estates across Yorkshire. Royd Ings Industrial Estate has been selected for this programme due to its proximity to the River Aire, which has experienced several water pollution incidents.

We are offering companies on Royd Ings Industrial Estate the opportunity to receive a funded and confidential visit or a best practices guidance document from one of our Specialist Advisors. They will conduct a brief review of their premises and provide advice on how to prevent and manage pollution risks. These visits have proven successful in other industrial estates in Yorkshire, ensuring that any potential risks can be minimised and potentially avoided altogether.

Chris White, our Associate Consultant at Groundwork, has been visiting the industrial estate to identify potential outlets to the river that are contributing to this pollution. He then traces the source of the pollution from these outlets and identify potentially high risk companies. Rob Hellawell, the Water Quality Officer from The Aire Rivers Trust, has been instrumental in pointing out potential pollution outlets to Chris. This helps us locate the source of the pollution where we can intervene with a free pollution prevention audit and share a Pollution Prevention Guidance Document to help prevent further incidents.

The following photographs shows the river and the condition of a number of outlets. One of the pollution problems seemed to have stopped with traces of oil. The other outlet started polluting whilst we were there with a good flow. This inferred it may be a poor connection to a foul water inlet or someone was pouring or washing pollutant into the river.

* Groundwork’s Sustainable Business Service (SBS) team in Manchester are delivering on Groundwork Yorkshire’s behalf for the Environment Agency.