White Tip
Monitoring by the Environment Agency (EA) has shown that Snailbeach White Tip contributes about 25% of the zinc pollution to the Minsterley Brook catchment, polluting Wood Farm Brook, Minsterley Brook and Rea Brook.
Snailbeach was mined for lead and zinc until the early 1900s, with small scale mining for barytes continuing up until the mid-1950s.
After closure, the tip was left largely as it was until Shropshire County Council undertook a reclamation scheme in the 1990s, primarily to address risks to human and animal health.
This involved re-profiling and capping the tip together with new drainage, including carrier and filter drains, settlement tanks and open ditches.
A buried French drain (a trench filled with clean gravel) has also been installed around the perimeter of the tip to collect seepage and directs it towards a small pond, constructed to settle out silt prior to discharge off the site.
Our plans, through the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) programme, include:
- construction of a surface water diversion pipeline
- undertaking small-scale pilot treatment trials for up to 24 months
- operational works to existing settlement pond, including dredging and appropriate disposal of accumulated sediment
- installation of a pilot plant treatment trial, within the footprint of the existing settlement pond, which is anticipated to run up until at least 2030