The Mersey Basin: an historical assessment of water quality from an anecdotal perspective

Lr, Burton

doi:10.1016/s0048-9697(03)00094-9

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…dyes, bleaches and chemicals) discharged into river channels. Whilst environmental legislation to tackle these problems began in the 1890s, the use of the river network as a waste disposal system effectively continued until the 1980s (Burton 2003). Manchester's industrial heritage centres upon its textile industries, but paper and printing works, tanneries, saw mills, chemical plants, engineering works, and coal mines were also widespread in this region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metal contamination of bed sediments in the Irwell and Upper Mersey catchments, northwest England: exploring the legacy of industry and urban growth

2017

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Purpose Manchester is often heralded as the first industrial city. Large volumes of physical and liquid contaminants were released into its river network throughout the industrial period up to the latter part of the twentieth century. Water quality has improved dramatically in recent decades, but, given their environmental significance, it is important to ascertain the extent to which a legacy of contamination persists in the modern bed sediments. Materials and methods Fine-grained bed sediments were sampled at 40 sites in the Mersey and Irwell catchments. Sediments were wet sieved to isolate the <63-μm grain size fraction. Metal concentrations were determined using XRF. Particle size characteristics were also measured. Sediments were subjected to a five-step sequential extraction procedure to ascertain the environmental significance of metal concentrations. Alongside archival research of past industry, enrichment factors, multivariate statistical techniques and conditional inferences trees were used to identify sources of heavy metals. Results and discussion Bed sediment-associated heavy metal(-loid) concentrations were as follows: As (9.89-110 mg kg −1 ), Cr (76.5-413 mg kg −1 ), Cu (53.1-383 mg kg −1 ), Pb (80.4-442 mg kg −1 ) and Zn (282-1020 mg kg −1 ). Enrichment factors ranged from moderate to extremely severe, with Pb showing the greatest enrichment across the catchments. Chemical mobility was generally low, but metal(loid) partitioning identified the influence of anthropogenic sources. Statistical analysis highlighted a number of point sources associated with former industrial sites that operated during the industrial period. Conditional inference trees highlighted the role of the textile industry on Cu concentrations in addition to indicating the complexity of sources, fluxes and stores of sediment-associated contamination throughout the system. Conclusions Fine-grained sediment-associated metal(loid)s in the Mersey and Irwell catchments are anthropogenically enriched. Concentrations also exceed sediment quality guidelines. A lack of distinct spatial patterning points to a complex network of contaminant inputs across the catchments, even in the headwaters. Whilst potential modern urban sources are likely to be important, spatial patterns and multivariate/data mining techniques also highlighted the importance of releases from former industrial sites as well as the reworking of historically contaminated floodplains and soils.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metal contamination of bed sediments in the Irwell and Upper Mersey catchments, northwest England: exploring the legacy of industry and urban growth

2017

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“…Furthermore, there is no discernible difference in the response observed in the Irwell compared with that in the upper Mersey catchment, where the latter experienced a much more typical period of flooding. Given the dramatic improvements in water quality in these catchments since the 1980s (Burton, ), the enduring sediment contamination issue points towards sources that are “locked in,” and potentially reinforced by the distinctive hydrological and geomorphological conditions of urban river networks. These contaminant sources may include the reworking of historically contaminated alluvial materials, which could help to explain persistent elevated concentrations, even in headwater catchments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly conservative behaviour of bed sediment‐associated metals following extreme flooding

Hurley

Woodward

Rothwell

2019

Hydrological Processes

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On December 26, 2015 (Boxing Day), an exceptional flood event occurred in the Irwell catchment, United Kingdom, when the neighbouring Mersey catchment experienced a much more typical winter run-off event. This provided an opportunity to examine the influence of high-magnitude hydrological processes on the behaviour of fine-grained metal-contaminated bed sediments. Forty sites across the two catchments were sampled for channel bed fine sediment storage and sediment-associated metal(loid) concentrations prior to, and following, the flooding. Sediments were analysed for total As, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn and then subjected to a five-step sequential extraction procedure. Despite a significant reorganisation of fine-grained (<63 μm) sediment storage, metal(loid) concentrations demonstrated markedly conservative behaviour with no significant difference observed between pre-flooding and postflooding values across both catchments. Estimates of the channel bed storage of sediment-associated metal(loid)s also showed minimal change as a result of the flooding. The metal partitioning data reveal only minor changes in the mobility of bed sediment-associated metal(loid)s, indicating that such flood events do not increase the availability of sorbed contaminants in these catchments. Post-flooding bed sediment metal(loid) loadings remain high, indicating persistent and long-lasting sources of contamination within the Irwell and upper Mersey fluvial network.

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“…Historically, the Estuary has been seriously polluted by industrial discharges and adjacent sea dumping [24] . The Mersey Basin Campaign has been focusing on improving the water quality in the rivers and waterways of the Northwest of England for almost 20 years, with the aim being to encourage high quality water front regeneration in the region, with a comprehensive programme of actions currently being undertaken to improve water quality [25] . The Mersey Estuary is a macro-tidal estuary, with typical spring-neap cycle tidal ranges varying between about 10.5 and 3.5 m. Freshwater inflow from the Mersey River into the Mersey Estuary varies from about 412 to 29520 ML/d.…”

Section: Studying Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling sediment transport processes in macro-tidal estuary

Jiang

Rauen

et al. 2009

Sci. China Ser. E-Technol. Sci.

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This paper outlines a numerical modeling study to predict the sediment transport processes in a macro-tidal estuary, namely the Mersey Estuary, UK. An integrated numerical model study is conducted to investigate the interaction between the hydrodynamic, morphological and sediment transport processes occurring in the estuary. The numerical model widely used in environmental sediment transport studies worldwide, namely ECOMSED is used to simulate flow and sediment transport in estuary. A wetting and drying scheme is proposed and applied to the model, which defines "dry" cells as regions with a thin film of fluid O (cm). The primitive equations are solved in the thin film as well as in other regular wet cells. A model for the bed load transport is included in the code to account for the dynamics of the mobile bed boundary. The bed evolution due to bed load transport which is calculated according to van Rijn (1984a) is obtained by solving the sediment mass-balance equation. An estuary-related laboratory flume experiment is used to verify the model. Six sets of field measured hydrodynamic data are used to verify the corresponding predictions of the model, with the model-predicted water elevations and salinity levels generally agreeing well with the field measurements. The numerical model results show that in the Mersey Estuary both the tidal level and river discharge affect significantly the sediment transport. Reasonable agreement between the model results and field data has been obtained, indicating that the model can be used as computer-based tool for the environment management of estuarine system. hydraulic modelling, sediment transport, estuary, ECOMSED, flooding and drying

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The Mersey Basin: an historical assessment of water quality from an anecdotal perspective

Cited by 23 publications

References 18 publications

Metal contamination of bed sediments in the Irwell and Upper Mersey catchments, northwest England: exploring the legacy of industry and urban growth

Metal contamination of bed sediments in the Irwell and Upper Mersey catchments, northwest England: exploring the legacy of industry and urban growth

Highly conservative behaviour of bed sediment‐associated metals following extreme flooding

Modelling sediment transport processes in macro-tidal estuary

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