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Houghton Green Pool water level going down fast


Geoffrey Settle

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Geoff, do United Utilities actually own this area?

Seems a strange place to be extracting drinking water, if it's above coal mines won't it be contaminated?

Also, if they do start extracting water regularly and this results in sustained waterlevel reduction the seed banks (feeding areas) will be destroyed. :(

Have you been in contact with the RSPB etc Geoff?

 

 

As I understand it UU do not own the area only the rights to the water but not the land.

I don't think that the coal seams are an issue; the water comes from a safe borehole.

The Warrington Nature Conservation Forum (WNCF) are monitoring the situation as detailed in the link above, a number of us live within walking distance and feed back info to our Secretary and Chair.

The chair Brian is a highly respected member of the RSPB and is like all of us concerned about the recent drop in water levels.

The WNCF are in regular contact with UU management who are keeping us fully informed about their actions and needs to extract which as I have indicated is part of their 2008 Drought Plan.

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Interesting point Geoff, about the consumption.As Dismayed posted, our Reservoir is low. I find that strange because we have not had a particularly hot summer.

 

I even took a photo, but am unable to post it. :evil:

 

Why can't you post your photo :?:?:

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  • 4 years later...

I know this is an old topic now, but I too have noticed the significant drop in water levels in this lake over recent years. I went today for a walk for the first time in about 6 months and was shocked to see how dramatically it has fallen of late. Is this United Utilities again or does the land owner plan on draining it completely ? when I looked at the natural bowl of the land from the top of the bank on the Delph Lane side, I thought it looked like an ideal location for a rock concert or outdoor festival perhaps ? Not sure locals would be too keen :/

 

If anyone could shed some light on this it'd be much appreciated !

 

Cheers.

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Tangomatic

 

I drove past there the other evening and although I wasn't particularly looking at levels, I could see there was still what looked like a small lake.

 

As I said earlier on this thread, I don't remember this ever being a lake but more just a dip in the fields that seemed to get a bit water logged after rainy periods but over the years it seems to have grown into a small semi-permanent lake. Add to this, when I was a kid delivering papers in the area, the building next to it was known as the Water Works so maybe there was some kind of pumping going on, who knows? 

 

Bill :)

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i remember seeing that empty, when it was still being quarried, which was  when the M62 was being built. It is a deep hole & i think has just been allowed to fill up naturally with land drainage & apparently has become a fairly important site for bird watchers. I think the main interest that the water board (now UU) had before  that lake was formed was in the adjacent field where there is or was a pumping station.

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Not sure if it is connected to the mine shaft pumping fugs, but the M62 now has a 50mph speed limit imposed due to uneven road surface.... signs and speed limits went up in the last week or two.

 

I was once told that the undulations in the road surface was caused by the mine workings from Parkside and they do seem to have gotten worse over the years..... just hope I'm not on it when a huge sink-hole appears! :)

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Not sure if it is connected to the mine shaft pumping fugs, but the M62 now has a 50mph speed limit imposed due to uneven road surface.... signs and speed limits went up in the last week or two.

 

I was once told that the undulations in the road surface was caused by the mine workings from Parkside and they do seem to have gotten worse over the years..... just hope I'm not on it when a huge sink-hole appears! :)

Hi Baz hope you are still alive and reading this having survived the M62 bone shaker - the bumps go on for miles - I wondered if it was a way of slowing traffic down like speed humps or just a bad repair to that section of the road as they are quite evenly spaced. I don't think its mine subsidence though unless they put loads of parallel shafts under the M62 plus it's miles away from Parkside but they did get as far as my house.

 

As for the Houton Green Pool SINC this was the result of excavating sand for the motorway construction - the reason it filled up was becuase UU stopped pumping from a well next door where the pumping station is. Once they had relaid the pipes to Winwick joining it to the resevoir on Water Lane they resumed and it has gone down. Don't be fooled the sides are steep and one day the young lads who go out in dinghies, light fires, wreck fences etc will come unstuck when they fall out of their infaltable and find out how cold the middle bit is due to the depth. :oops:

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Talking of the M62 ,the bumps & uneven surface could be caused even by normal susidence ,i believe it runs over part of Chat Moss  which caused the the builders nearly as many problems as for the navviies building the original Liverpool / Manchester line. I  believe several large items of construction equipment disappeared in the boggy ground.

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Hi Baz hope you are still alive and reading this having survived the M62 bone shaker - the bumps go on for miles - I wondered if it was a way of slowing traffic down like speed humps or just a bad repair to that section of the road as they are quite evenly spaced.

 

All survived Geoff.... air-suspension is a wonderful German invention :)

 

I don't think its mine subsidence though unless they put loads of parallel shafts under the M62 plus it's miles away from Parkside but they did get as far as my house.

 

As for the Houghton Green Pool SINC this was the result of excavating sand for the motorway construction - the reason it filled up was because UU stopped pumping from a well next door where the pumping station is. Once they had re-laid the pipes to Winwick joining it to the reservoir on Water Lane they resumed and it has gone down. Don't be fooled the sides are steep and one day the young lads who go out in dinghies, light fires, wreck fences etc will come unstuck when they fall out of their inflatable and find out how cold the middle bit is due to the depth. :oops:

 

Take it from me- as one who nearly drowned in the canal at Bewsey when I was about 10; falling into cold water in a steep sided canal or reservoir is no joke.... I was only saved because a driving instructor called Terry Spink was passing and managed to drag me out!!

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  • 5 years later...

I lead walks for my group. Today I planned a recce of the pool from B&Q car park taking in the tumulus.  However on reaching the pool I saw  nothing but a mud patch with a small puddle. On my return rout I had a chat at a local farm and was told the water board was taking water off from it??  Does anyone know who owns or is responsible for it.

The water is a valuable resource for wildlife.

Brian Murphy 

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  • 1 month later...

I was told by an ex Parkside colliery employee that the shafts went out as far as 6 miles horizontally, which he reckoned was around the fire station on Winwick road. They also had pumps running 24/7 otherwise the shafts flooded.

I remember a pill box type structure on the far side of the depression near the motorway. In the 70s the plates were missing from the top and we used to climb up and drop things down, they used to drop into the inky blackness and it took ages until you heard it reach the bottom. I actually had nightmares about it, but had to keep going back. I had a look a few months ago and the pill box is still there but the top is securely sealed.

On a related issue, I was at a Warrington Wolves games recently and had a chat with one of the groundmen at half time. I had heard from an ex brewery worker that they used water drawn from an underground spring and this was utilised in the watering of the pitch. He confirmed that they indeed use it, but it is poor quality and unsuitable for drinking. He also said that it is drawn from a bore hole 60m deep and this taps into a vast underground lake that stretches as far as Southport.

It seems like there are a lot of strange things going on beneath our feet.

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