Please provide information on flood events have been attributed to the presence of mine spoil heaps.
I am interested in the spoil heaps of both abandoned mines and (formerly) active mines.
The type of information I’d like to receive includes:
* details of the flood event (e.g. date, spoil heap involved, result of flood etc.),
* weather conditions (for example, I can envisage that some flooding could be caused by heavy rainfall alone while, in other cases, it could be caused by heavy rainfall following a prolonged dry spell),
* and the suspected cause (e.g. runoff from spoil heaps, blockage of culverts under spoil heaps etc.).
• Devon County Council holds no information on flood events attributed to the presence of mine spoil heaps.
• Whilst mineral developments (including mine workings) have the potential to exacerbate flood risk, modern day planning requirements (at a national and local level) should ensure that any mineral proposals are designed, worked and restored in a manner which does not increase flood risk elsewhere.
• During extreme weather events, it is quite possible that the design capacity of drainage systems for mine workings may be exceeded, which may contribute to surface water flows, as well as those in water courses.
• However, none of the statutory flood investigations undertaken by Devon County Council in its role as Lead Local Flood Authority (which are published and available on the Authority’s web site at: Flood risk management) has been able to distinguish any specific contribution to these flood events from water flows emanating from mine (or any other mineral) workings.
Further, we should clarify that any internal drainage issues, such as blockage of culverts, within the boundaries of a private mining site would be dealt with locally by the landowners/mine operators and no reason to be brought to our attention.