Trinity Broads To Be Dredged.

[JennyMorgan]

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/1_5m_works_to_begin_soon_to_enhance_trinity_broads_1_4898445

[unclemike]

who are the "broads national park authority"?

 

[Poppy]

I trust that these works will NOT be funded from the Navigation budget, since the Trinity Broads are not open to navigation

[dnks34]

Nothing would suprise me after this years Toll Increase.....if it is being funded from the Nav budget you can bet they will get away with it.  

My opinion of the upper echelons in Yare House just couldnt be any lower. 

 

[JennyMorgan]

46 minutes ago, chameleon said:

who are the "broads national park authority"?

 

I note that Archant has corrected its glaring faux pas.

[JennyMorgan]

47 minutes ago, Poppy said:

I trust that these works will NOT be funded from the Navigation budget, since the Trinity Broads are not open to navigation

It can be done in a quarter size reed lighter!

[Vaughan]

Reading this, it sounds like good news!

If you can see through the "mud" of disconnected EDP "journalism", this turns out to be a scheme driven, and it seems, funded by "Ponds UK" (whoever they are) and the water boards responsible for drinking water in Yarmouth, for which these broads are used as reservoirs.

There is no doubt whatever (and I have seen it in practice) that mud pumping is the best and most effective way of treating a body of otherwise still water, like the Trinity Broads. There was great success with this method many years ago, on Cockshoot, among several others. The only problem will be where to allow all the resultant slurry to drain off, but presumably they have worked this out, in their plan.

If only they did more of this sort of thing on Hickling, we might see a big difference!

[Poppy]

18 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Reading this, it sounds like good news!

If you can see through the "mud" of disconnected EDP "journalism", this turns out to be a scheme driven, and it seems, funded by "Ponds UK" (whoever they are) and the water boards responsible for drinking water in Yarmouth, for which these broads are used as reservoirs.

There is no doubt whatever (and I have seen it in practice) that mud pumping is the best and most effective way of treating a body of otherwise still water, like the Trinity Broads. There was great success with this method many years ago, on Cockshoot, among several others. The only problem will be where to allow all the resultant slurry to drain off, but presumably they have worked this out, in their plan.

If only they did more of this sort of thing on Hickling, we might see a big difference!

If only the RSPB and the NWT would permit it!!

[JennyMorgan]

According to the propaganda in the latest edition of Broad Squit the Authority is mud pumping on Hickling. I'll see if I can fit up a link for our 'foreign correspondent'.

[JennyMorgan]

26 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

According to the propaganda in the latest edition of Broad Squit the Authority is mud pumping on Hickling. I'll see if I can fit up a link for our 'foreign correspondent'.

No joy, sorry.

[Vaughan]

49 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

No joy, sorry.

If they are serious about mud pumping on Hickling then that will be a major operation, over such an expanse of water. And your "foreign correspondent" has seen this done, in Europe as well as on the Broads. It requires a large amount of land, which can be banked up to provide a repository for the mud. The mud then sits there, for about two years, while the water is allowed to drain back into the waterway. After that it is removed by truck and provides excellent soil for the promulgation of plants and vegetables, especially in the Flemish countries.

A kind of glorified recycling, if you like!

The problem on Hickling would be that the land required would turn out to be the last known refuge for a nesting pair of lesser spotted bar tailed Cocky-Olley bird - a distant and only relative of the Sudanese OO-Me Goolie bird, which needs a long and un-interrupted landing strip, since its nether regions are somewhat vital to its pro-creation in the "natural" habitat.

Am I joking?

Or not?

[JennyMorgan]

A lot of the spoil is being used to reinstate eroded banks and reedbeds. To be fair, after being dragged kicking and screaming into doing the work, the Authority does now appear to be doing something right at Hickling, unless someone else knows better.

[Poppy]

JM,

They are dredging largely in the channel only. The nature of the spoil across the whole Broad means that the liquid mud will soon find its way into the 'deeper' areas.......

[Vaughan]

52 minutes ago, Poppy said:

They are dredging largely in the channel only. The nature of the spoil across the whole Broad means that the liquid mud will soon find its way into the 'deeper' areas.......

I have seen mud pumping, where the spoil is being laid ashore at least a kilometre away from the dredger. It doesn't have to be on the bank; it can be in a farmer's field as long as it is draining back into the broad or river. Then you just need road access for trucks to come and take it away and restore the ground a year or two later.

No trampled reeds, and no dead birds!

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, Poppy said:

JM,

They are dredging largely in the channel only. The nature of the spoil across the whole Broad means that the liquid mud will soon find its way into the 'deeper' areas.......

Allegedly the spoil is held in place by geo-textiles and baskets of gravel. These gravel filled baskets have not been a huge success along the New Cut with probably half of them spilling their contents. 

[Springsong]

As for letting it drain, as I recall that is how dredging worked back in the day. A great source of clay pipes and beer bottles. This photo is of Irstead shoals just up river from the staithe.

[JennyMorgan]

Re bottles and clay pipes, I have thousands of the things that my children I have found over the years when we've explored spoil sites. Great times, good memories.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, springsong said:

The colour of that mud is rather interesting.

TIMBO?   Come and have a look at this. . . . . 

[Poppy]

3 hours ago, Vaughan said:

I have seen mud pumping, where the spoil is being laid ashore at least a kilometre away from the dredger. It doesn't have to be on the bank; it can be in a farmer's field as long as it is draining back into the broad or river. Then you just need road access for trucks to come and take it away and restore the ground a year or two later.

No trampled reeds, and no dead birds!

I was not suggesting that the pumped spoil will find its way back into the broad, rather that the slurry remaining outside of the dredged area will 'run downhill' .

[JennyMorgan]

19 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

It can be done in a quarter size reed lighter!

And so it was,  I joined up with Broads aristocracy for the day and here's the tale:

[marshman]

PW - at Hickling, they are not using gabions of any sort. The mud is being pumped into lagoons made with geotextile material held in place with posts. The trouble is they are difficult to put in but it was very successful last winter up on the north eastern corner up near the boat houses so it is being replicated on a larger scale in Churchills Bay.

And Vaughan, they are not really mudpumping - that usually involves a suction dredger and pumping much more water down a longer pipe, but at the moment they are using traditional equipment and moving material by the steel wherries up to the pump which is in reality an adapted concrete pump - the mud is unloaded into a hopper and then pumped to where its needed. Unlike mudpumping where it does tend to find its own level, this is more solid and pumped over a much shorter distance, and the pipe has to be moved around more but it leaves a more "solid" result which can be reestablished more quickly with reedmace and reed. Trouble is it is all a bit labour intensive!

Once the water temps begin to rise, above about 8C, they will pack up and the plan will be to continue next year. Not sure if its been decided where spoil is going next time but I think its possibly going ashore by pump somewhere on the eastern side.

[Vaughan]

Thanks very much for that very interesting explanation Marshman. Perhaps if the EDP hadn't called it mud pumping I might not have gone off at a tangent!

[JennyMorgan]

Marsh, re gabions, did they not use them on Duck Island? I though that there was one place where they had used them.

[marshman]

Pete - they did indeed use gabions, but not stone filled ones. In fact they used large builders bags , or similar, filled with mud. This enabled the vegetation to fill the area bags pretty quickly and now, the edge against the channel has established itself as a reed fringe ,very effectively - from the water the bags are still discernible if you look closely, but only just!

[JennyMorgan]

Marsh, thanks for the clarification. Have been past several times but never close enough to see what the contents were.