The field trial at the Scunthorpe British Steel plant started this month. We are currently monitoring the existing wetland for passive treatment of the steel slag leachate. We are aiming to understand better what happens to vanadium (plant uptake / partitioning) and also to determine the treatment buffering rates. We hope to be able to publish some exciting results soon!
The University of Hull team made a field trip to collect samples and data in a historical legacy site (Consett, Co. Durham). We made simultaneous water quality monitoring and flow measurements at various locations in Howden Burn and Dene Burn. These watercourses drain areas with steel slag from the former Consett Iron and Steelworks, which has occupied the site from the middle of the 19th century up to 1980, when it was closed. The Dene Burn receives a subterranean drainage network beneath the Grove Heaps area of the site, where blast furnace bottom and steel slag were deposited. The Howden Burn drains an area north of the Dene Burn previously occupied by the workings blast furnaces, power station, and steel plant. The data collect will allow us to quantify rates of calcite precipitation and transport/attenuation of trace elements downstream of the leachate sources.