00:00 Graphic
map showing location of Skinningrove and surrounding area
Wide
– Skinningrove village
c.u.
Sign for Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum
Wide
– iron ore cart
c.u.
ore bearing rocks in cart
c.u.
feeder stream coming out of underground pipe
Water
gushing from larger feeder pipe
Wide
of above
Wide
of ochre stained river
Closer
of above
Guide Voice: Skinningrove is a small village on
the northeast coast of England. It used to be home to one of 86
iron ore mines in the region – a legacy of the time when
Teesside was one of the iron and steel centres of the world. The
mine closed in 1958 – but in the early sixties the mine
presented the village with one last memento of its past. Ochre, an
earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, has now been leeching out
of the old underground workings for the last 40 years –
staining the river red, killing the wildlife and blocking
sewers.
00:32 SOT: Dr Richard Lord,
Bio-Remediation Programme
Manager, Clean Environment Management Centre
(CLEMANCE), University
of Teesside -
“Ochre is iron oxide – ferric hydroxide – and
it forms as, rust really, on rocks and vegetation in streams that
are affected by mine waters. The ochre is quite environmentally
damaging, it isn’t toxic as such, in this case, but it can
be; but what it does do is smother everything in sight. So
it’s very visually intrusive; the stream bed and all the
plants look very bright orange, don’t look very attractive,
but it also smothers the organisms and clogs fish gills and has an
environmental impact in that way.”
01:09 Wide
– environmental officer removing filter covers
View
into filter pit
c.u.
water entering pit
Ochre-stained
river
Wider
of above
Exterior,
University of Teesside sign
Wide,
University campus
Wide,
University campus
Wide,
interior – laboratory
GVs
– Dr Lord weighing dried ochre
Laboratory
Assistant looking at ochre sludge & river water samples
GVs
– ochre slurry being pumped into bag
c.u.
solidified ochre
Wide
– Dr Lord & Christine Parry drawing water sample from
outlet
GVs
– water testing
Guide Voice: The villagers obtained funding to
install a filter system; but this quickly clogs up and the ochre
finds its way back into the river – and the problem
isn’t particular to Skinningrove; around the world water from
disused mines is an increasing source of industrial waste and
pollution.
Now researchers at the University of Teesside, based at
nearbyMiddlesbrough, think they may have a long term solution to
the collection and disposal of this ochre “sludge”.
Dr Richard Lord, from the University’s Clean Environment
Management Centre, (CLEMANCE) can be seen here weighing dried out
samples of the ochre sludge which, even when extracted from the
river continues to hold large amounts of water, making it difficult
to find practical applications for the material.
Their solution is to pump the ochre as slurry and filter it
using special geotextile bags, extracting solid iron oxide and
returning clearer water to the river. The resulting raw material is
then passed on for use in cement making.
It’s important that the scientists find ways to re-use the
material; disposal is an expensive option as well as one that
simply moves the pollution problem elsewhere.
02:17 SOT: Christine Parry, Project Manager,
Industrial Symbiosis Programme, University of
Teesside - “The majority of the people in
the village would’ve been employed by the mine and
economically the village collapsed once the mines closed –
and to have this come back and haunt them, if you like, isn’t
very nice at all. What they wanted to do was turn this into some
kind of social enterprise, so take the problem that the heritage
has left them with and try and turn it into something that would
generate profit for the village."
02:46 GVs
– water testing at filter site
Guide Voice: The aim of the University’s
clean environment management centre is to try to find sustainable
solutions to pollution problems and industrial issues. Passing the
ochre to the cement industry is one solution – but the
research team have also been looking for more creative, long term
uses for this waste material.
03:05 SOT: Dr. Lord –
“We’ve got a local potter involved with some trials
looking at whether ochre could be used in glazes for her pottery
and we’re quite hopeful that this is the case and it’ll
produce a unique product which has an association with Skinningrove
because it contains the ochre and is unique.”
03:21 Wide
– pottery examples
c.u.
(x 3) individual pottery pieces
Guide Voice: This pottery isn’t just
about finding a commercial use for the waste product –
it’s also returning a sense of achievement to the village
itself.
03:30 SOT: Tom Evans, Environmental
Officer Skinningrove Area, Loftus
Development Trust – “Since we’ve
experimented with the pottery – the amount of enthusiasm
shown in the village, from in particular the elderly generation
– to see a red stained river and then see a piece of pottery
that’s been made from the ochre; they’re sort of
gob-smacked (amazed)."
03:56 GVs
– Dr Lord in laboratory
c.u.
dried ochre
Wide
– solidified ochre in bins
c.u.
hand crumbling ochre
Pan
across samples of pottery
c.u.
single pottery piece
Guide Voice: Analysis of the ochre has also
revealed that it is clear of heavy metals and could be used for
other purposes, such as in the manufacture of CDs, DVDs and other
recording materials. The importance of the University’s
research lies in its focus on industrialsymbiosis – the view
that one man’s waste is another man’s raw material.
This positive approach is creating long term solutions to one of
the mining industries bleakest legacies – long term solutions
that can be applied world-wide.
04:25 End
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