{"id":128026,"date":"2025-11-10T15:21:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128026\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:21:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:21:20","slug":"project-in-brighton-to-protect-drinking-water-from-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128026\/","title":{"rendered":"Project in Brighton to protect drinking water from pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BrightonBrighton & Hove City Council<\/p>\n

The Wild Park rainscape has been six years in the planning<\/p>\n

A new project aims to protect the vast majority of a city’s drinking water from toxic road pollution.<\/p>\n

Every time it rains, millions of litres of water wash off roads, carrying a dangerous mix of oil, tyre particles, heavy metals, and microplastics, according to the University of Brighton.<\/p>\n

The Wild Park rainscape, built beside the A27 on the edge of Brighton, aims to capture and filter polluted runoff before it reaches the chalk aquifer, a body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater. <\/p>\n

This stormwater runoff is a “largely unseen but significant pollutant, affecting rivers, wetlands, and groundwater,” university researchers said. <\/p>\n

Over 90% of the city’s drinking water comes from the underground aquifer, researchers say. <\/p>\n

Prof Martin Smith, from the university’s school of applied sciences, said: “When polluted water from our roads seeps into the aquifer, it’s not just a scientific problem \u2013 it’s our drinking water, our children’s health, and our local environment at stake. <\/p>\n

“Projects like the Wild Park rainscape make sure the water we rely on every day is safe.”<\/p>\n

The project, which had been planned for six years, involved planting reed beds and wetland plants, trees, and a wildflower meadow to collect rainwater and filter out pollutants, according to Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC).<\/p>\n

Before construction began, the university team monitored runoff from the A27 and found water in the area contained higher levels of contaminants than recommended.<\/p>\n

Lead, a remnant from older fuels, chromium from road markings, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons from tyres and asphalt were all present. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Living Coast\/Roderick Wilson<\/p>\n

The project aims to capture and filter polluted runoff before it reaches the chalk aquifer<\/p>\n

Laboratory tests showed that much of this contamination could be captured before it reached the soil. <\/p>\n

Water from the road travels along a 1.2-mile (1.9km) route, passing through multiple filtration stages before it reaches the ground. <\/p>\n

The university team will continue long-term monitoring in the coming years to measure the rainscape’s impact on water quality, pollutant removal, and biodiversity. <\/p>\n

Trevor Muten, cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure at BHCC, said: “The rainscape is a ground-breaking project in more ways than one, harnessing the power of nature to filter out pollution and protect the underground chalk aquifer which supplies much of our drinking water.<\/p>\n

“It is helping to prevent flooding and provides a stunning new landscape for people and wildlife in Wild Park.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brighton & Hove City Council The Wild Park rainscape has been six years in the planning A new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-128026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}