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Metal Pollution Reduction Linked to Increased Biodiversity in English Rivers, Study Finds

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24 Feb, 2025

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

It stands to reason that if you reduce the amount of pollution in an environment, the organisms there will thrive. Now, a study confirms that is happening in rivers in England. According to the research, reducing the amount of metal pollutants like zinc and copper in English rivers led to an increase in the aquatic biodiversity of macroinvertebrates.

As coal and heavy industry have declined, related river pollution also cleared up, allowing more invertebrates to thrive, the study published in Environmental Science & Technology found.

A team led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) analyzed over 65,000 observations 1,457 sites from 1989 to 2018 found in the UK Environmental Agency’s data.

In their findings, reduction in metal pollutants had the biggest impact on invertebrate biodiversity, although other pollution reduction, such as sewage, also impacted the variety of invertebrate species. According to the findings, zinc levels below 14 micrograms per liter and copper levels below 3.3 micrograms per liter led to the biggest improvements in species richness.

The authors estimated that metal pollutants and sewage may have declined for multiple reasons, including reduced coal dependence, which would lead to a decline in acid rain that contribute to metal pollution in waterways. Some of the ammonia, organic matter, and other pollutant declines could also be attributed to the 1991 European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and improved agricultural practices, according to the study.

With strong evidence that zinc & copper concentrations have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, efforts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals, lead author Prof Andrew Johnson said

🔗 www.ceh.ac.uk/press/biodiv…

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— UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) (@ukceh.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 8:09 AM

“There is a widespread desire by the public to improve water quality and biodiversity in our rivers but the problem for policymakers is what steps would be most likely to achieve results,” Andrew Johnson, lead author of the study and environmental research scientist at UKCEH, said in a statement. “Our study provides strong evidence that concentrations of zinc and copper have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, so future attempts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals.”

The study determined that while river biodiversity improved in the 1980s and 1990s with reduced metal pollution, the species richness has mostly plateaued since 2000, and the authors cited other research that has shown similar trends across North America and Europe.

The authors wrote that more research is needed to determine what urban land cover pollutants most impact biodiversity of invertebrates, and that runoff from urban areas could still contribute to higher levels of zinc and carbon pollution that may not be detected in routine river sampling. Further, the study found that higher levels of metal pollution continue to exist downstream from former mines.

These factors will need to be considered for environmental protection efforts, as the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set a target to reduce the length of rivers impacted by metal pollutants from mines by half by 2038.

“The way priority chemicals are currently identified for action, ensuring aquatic wildlife may be better protected, could be described as ‘top-down,’” the authors concluded in the study.

“Here, we used a ‘bottom-up’ approach, relying on a statistical analysis of large wildlife and stressor field data sets (consistent monitoring by regulatory agencies being critical to this approach) to identify factors that are most closely associated with biodiversity. We suggest that this approach has considerable merit and at the very least can act as a sense check on the traditional approach.”

The post Metal Pollution Reduction Linked to Increased Biodiversity in English Rivers, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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