SAVE LONGSTONE EDGE

As many of you will have seen on TV the picturesque Peak District village of Stoney Middleton was hit by a tidal wave of industrial waste from Glebe Mines processing plant at Cavendish Mill over two miles up the Dale. Fortunately, by what has been described as miracle by those who witnessed the event, no one was killed or injured although damage to the main A623 and private homes may run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It appears that an old tailings lagoon burst spewing its contents for three miles through some of the best wildlife sites in the National Park. (Tailings is the fine sediment left after Fluorspar has being separated from the host Limestone, worries are that it may contain toxic heavy metals such as lead or cadmium.) Because of its biodiversity and unique assemblage of rare plants and animals, the National Park Authority together with local people (local schools, WI, U3A, Natural History groups, farmers and land owners) have all put thousands of hours effort into conserving and enhancing this very special area, which may well take years to recover.

Threatened animals include Water Shrew, Water Vole, and Brook Lamprey, Bullheads, Dipper and many of the aquatic invertebrates.

There is also concern amongst local people that if the much larger lagoons at the head of Combs Dale failed, the resulting devastation would be considerably more than this incident.