]> 2026-04-13T19:42:42+00:00 Case study:River Keekle Restoration 500 en RDPE Socio-Economic Schemes Case Study Booklet - WEG.pdf Approved 0.5 - 2 m 0.001 - 0.01 5 - 10 m West Cumbria Rivers Trust Environment Agency Natural England AECOM university of salford Great Britain Water Environment Fund Environment Agency Yes No Yes false Pre Restoration.jpg Pre Restoration 2.jpg Pre Restoration 4.jpg Pre Restoration 5.jpg DJI 0005.JPG HYPERLAPSE 0007.JPG 20210318 120649.jpg DJI 0009.JPG HYPERLAPSE 0074.JPG 20210318 120955.jpg HYPERLAPSE 0125.JPG 20210318 121206.jpg HYPERLAPSE 0009.JPG HYPERLAPSE 0014.JPG DJI 0014.JPG Typical condition pre-restoration Aerial view post-restoration Natural features in river, post-restoration River now has space to renaturalise Cobbles, gravels and boulders have now replaced the plastic liner Newly-created wetlands join the main river Aerial view showing variety of in-river features and habitats Priests Gill, a particularly steep tributary, posed several difficulties during restoration No 54.546286016302,-3.5414885804057 WCRT Luke West Cumbria Rivers Trust Bryant ,, ,,, 26352 Environment Agency, Natural England, AECOM, university of salford 2021-09-03Z 2459460.5 20210318 121206.jpg 2017-04-12Z 2457855.5 Complete The River Keekle is a tributary of the River Ehen located around 3 kilometres east of Whitehaven, in West Cumbria. The river was heavily modified until the 1990s due to nearby coal mining. After mine spoil was buried across the site the river was lined with an HDPE plastic liner. This liner was failing and heavily degraded, posing a flood risk and potential catastrophic contamination issue for the Keekle, as well as the River Ehen which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. Research by the University of Salford showed the liner had been shedding 500kg of plastic particles per year since its installation. There was also concern that the river would vertically erode through the clay cap installed below the liner and expose ground water potentially mixed with mine waste that was buried in the 1990s, allowing heavy metals and chemicals to leach into the Keekle and further downstream. Whilst all of the EA’s sampling of water quality currently proved there was no contamination across the site, if nothing was done to stop erosion, there was a real possibility of the Keekle exposing mine waste in the future. The Upper Keekle was also failing under the Water Framework Directive classification as a habitat for fish due to mining-related modifications. The modifications include the liner, bed-check weirs that washed out during floods in the 1990s, erratic boulder locations and areas where the plastic has broken up, creating barriers to natural fish migration. This project, over a two-year period (2019-2020) removed the entire extent of plastic lining, replacing with boulders, cobbles and gravels to naturalise the river. A total of 180 tonnes of plastic was eventually removed and recycled, whilst around 16,000 tonnes of stones were imported into the site and strategically placed throughout the 2.5km expanse of restored river. River Keekle Restoration river keekle restoration http://westcumbriariverstrust.org/projects/keekle Yes 2520 South West Lakes North West River Keekle (upper) river keekle (upper) Keekle keekle Salmon (Salmo salar) and Sea-trout (Salmo trutta trutta) brown trout (Salmo trutta) European eel Brook lamprey Sea lamprey stone loach 10 - 100 km² 245 200 - 500 m River Keekle (upper) GB112074070030 Environmental flows and water resources Fisheries Habitat and biodiversity Hydromorphology Monitoring Social benefits Water quality 1515000 GB112074070030 Keekle (upper) 2020-09-22Z 2459114.5 2019-05-13Z 2458616.5 2021-08-27T11:27:26Z 2459453.9773843 2022-08-04T13:29:27Z 2459796.0621181 River Keekle Restoration 500 1 plainlist 5 [[Category:Case study]] [[Project title::!River Keekle Restoration]] [[Subcatchment title::River Keekle (upper)]] River Keekle Restoration# QUERY826ebc5ff0a71d3e0afbbdb482909683