Hope and 'frustration' over harbour's brown water

The water at Whitehaven Harbour has been brown since 2022

There is hope a solution is "within grasp" to stop a marina's water turning brown, the harbour commissioners' chief executive has said.

Whitehaven Harbour has been battling issues with the colour of its water since the end of 2022.

A meeting on Friday called by the area's new MP Josh MacAlister with local authorities, regulators and stakeholders, aimed to talk about a permanent solution.

Deanne Shallcross, from Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners, said she was feeling positive that experts had agreed there were potential solutions and support was now needed to navigate the complexities around it.

Investigations to find the source of the problem started in 2023, with tests carried out at a railway tunnel to see if water from old mine workings was entering a tunnel nearby and then flowing to the harbour culvert.

Earlier samples had shown "increased metals in the water".

'Rattle cages'

The meeting included Whitehaven Town Council, Northern Rail, the Environment Agency, Highways England, Network Rail and the Coal Authority and followed on from a meeting in March, when all authorities agreed to work to resolve the problem.

Mrs Shallcross said partners all agreed that while the root cause cannot be tackled quickly, there are things that can be done to treat the discoloured water.

She said: "From a community perspective there is a massive amount of frustration, because I haven't been able to come away today with a categorical answer for the community of Whitehaven to say our harbour is going to be clean within X period.

"But I'm a lot more positive because finally we've got some answers: we know there are solutions out there, it's been accepted by those experts and specialists around the table that it could and should work, we've just got to get these last bits of answers around the size, funding required and licencing."

She added Labour's Mr MacAlister had pledged to "rattle lots of cages" to get answers around how to overcome obstacles.

Authorities and agencies would have to come together to find the funding

In the meantime, the harbour commissioners' team will work to continue to assemble evidence, including the economic impact on the area, but also the reputational issues Mrs Shallcross deals with from "miffed" residents and visitors.

The port, which is a non-profit organisation, would not be expected to fund the work alone, she said, but both funding and finding solutions would be a joint effort from all agencies involved.

Mrs Shallcross said: "What we need is to find a way around those regulations.

"What Josh MacAlister has said is that it's about getting the answers, working with the powers that be, the people down in Parliament, who can help with funding and fast-tracking licences.

"We're not looking to bypass rules and regs, we're just looking for somebody to acknowledge that actually, we've got a lot of answers already from the work that's gone on over the last 12 to 18 months."