Stop Contamination of the Lake District’s “incredibly special” Rivers
Stop Contamination of the Lake District’s “incredibly special” Rivers
Latest: May 28, 2026
In the News
Dear Friends,
Our challenge is in the news here in the local press
And here at Energy Voice
Not really raised in the press is that Sellafield have applied to the Environment Agency for a licence to ab…
Read moreWhat’s the Story?
Sellafield plan to abstract and dispose of 40 cubic metres an hour of contaminated water into the Rivers Calder and Ehen directly (via the Calder Interceptor Sewer) and indirectly (via groundwater and run off) for the next seven years.
Legal Challenge
A legal challenge by nuclear safety volunteer group, Lakes Against Nuclear Dump with the help of top environmental lawyers, Leigh Day is threatened against the Environment Agency’s rubber-stamping of this abstraction and disposal of polluted water for the purpose of dewatering to aid construction of the Box Encapsulation Plant Project (BEPPS2) at Sellafield.
Aquifer “Downgraded by longterm/permanent degradation of water quality” by Sellafield.
No one begrudges Sellafield repackaging leaking nuclear wastes from the Magnox silos but this should not be at the further expense of Cumbria’s rivers, groundwaters and even the primary and secondary acquifers in the region which the industry says have already been “downgraded by long-term / permanent degradation of water quality by the wider Sellafield works. The industry say that the aquifer “is not abstracted locally” in justification of having already polluted a major and increasingly important freshwater resource. Meanwhile the industry calls itself “clean”
Abuse of the beautiful River Calder
The lower reaches of the river Calder were straightened and canalised in the late 60s- early 1970s in order to accommodate more buildings on the Sellafield site and faster ‘disposal’ of contaminated run-off from the nuclear site. Buildings containing dangerous nuclear materials have even been erected on the original braided river bed.
This vintage photo shows Sellafield before the river Calder was straightened - the ecologically important gravel beds of braided rivers are clearly showing. The vibrant wildlife of the coastal reaches of the river Calder is still within living memory “the salmon were so prolific.. you could almost walk on them” “before they straightened it and cleared the banks of foliage you could watch dippers feeding and a kingfisher.”
Why are we raising funds?
We are aiming to give the rivers Calder and Ehen a voice. A voice which has so far been ignored despite all the abuses by the nuclear industry in West Cumbria.
Although Leigh Day have generously agreed to do this at much reduced rates, we still need to raise funds in order to challenge this outrageous plan to accelerate disposal of radioactively contaminated and polluted construction wastes to the rivers Calder and Ehen.
All monies raised will go directly to the legal case in order to cover our legal team’s costs, court fees and adverse costs if the case is unsuccessful.
Every donation will go directly towards challenging the plan.
More Information
River Calder:
“Globally, braided rivers are rare. They occur only where a very specific combination of climate and geology allows rivers to form ever-changing and highly dynamic ‘braided’ channels across a wide gravelly riverbed”. The river Calder rises at Lankrigg Moss and travels an ancient landscape under the oldest packhorse bridge until it reaches Sellafield where the river’s once widespread braids spread over a fertile coastal plain have been built over and canalised. Now Sellafield wants absolute free rein to further pollute the much abused Calder which meets with the equally important River Ehen at the Irish Sea.
River Ehen:
“The river Ehen is incredibly special as 90% of England’s Freshwater Pearl Mussels call it home. As the country’s last stronghold for this critically endangered species, it is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Mussels in the Ehen are entirely dependent on the local salmon population in order to reproduce and, with Atlantic salmon an endangered species, this is another reason for the river’s SAC status.” West Cumbria Rivers Trust
PROPOSED GROUNDS OF CHALLENGE
GROUNDS 1 and 2: Failure to comply with Article 9(3) of the Conservation of Habitats
and Species Regulations 2017, when read with Article 6(2) of the Habitats
Directive and/or Failure to: (a) have regard to all the relevant circumstances as
required by s. 38(3) of the Water Resources Act 1991; and/or (b) take account
of a mandatory material consideration (namely the impact on the River Ehen
SAC)
Sellafield confirmed to the Environment Agency that the “general groundwater flow in the sandstone is to the southwest towards the river Ehen based on groundwater level monitoring”. The river Ehen is the site of the
River Ehen Special Area of Conservation, which was designated as such due to the presence of Freshwater pearl mussel and Atlantic Salmon.
Ground 3: Failure to comply with Regulation 3 of the Water Environment (Water
Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017
When determining an application for a water abstraction license
the EA must determine that authorisation so as “to prevent deterioration of the
surface water status or groundwater status of a body of water”.
GROUND 4: Failure to provide lawful reasons
The Reasons provide no explanation whatsoever as to what steps the EA has undertaken to ensure that, in taking the Decision, it was compliant with
the range of important statutory obligations placed upon it
The Pre-Action letter sent on the 5th August contemplates a judicial review challenge to the legality of the Decision.
Thank You!
If you can donate a small amount that would be amazing but if you cannot please share to raise awareness of what is going on with the contamination of our unique and special rivers on the Lake District coast and give our rivers a voice
All donations will go direct to giving our rivers a voice.
Main image of the salmon leaping by Ken Cheatham
Marianne Birkby
May 28, 2026
In the News
Dear Friends,
Our challenge is in the news here in the local press
And here at Energy Voice
Not really raised in the press is that Sellafield have applied to the Environment Agency for a licence to abstract/discharge contaminated water in the vicinity of the leaking Magnox Silos. The reason the Magnox Silos are leaking is because they are partially underground. It is of huge concern that Sellafield are looking to do the same again by mining a 7 metre deep tunnel which would be part of the planned "Box Encapsulation Plant Product Store 2“ (nuclear waste is proposed to be moved from the magnox silos to the proposed BEPPS2, the plan is to then top up the Magnox Silos with fresh water to try and dilute the leaking contamination) The reason for the 7 metre deep tunnel which would release the contaminated water has not been revealed by Sellafield as far as we know, neither to the EA or to the Judge. The process of digging the tunnel and lining with concrete would say Sellafield take a very short time - which begs the question why is their application to the EA for abstraction/discharge of contaminated water for several years? Sellafield plan to abstract and dispose of 40 cubic metres an hour of contaminated water into the Rivers Calder and Ehen directly (via the Calder Interceptor Sewer) and indirectly (via groundwater and run off) for the next seven years.
a note on the Magnox Silos and why digging a 7 metre deep tunnel nearby is dangerous - apart from the obvious risks to the health of the rivers Calder and Ehen....
Since 2019, 2.3 to 2.5 cubic metres of radioactive “liquor” has been leaking uncontrollably every day 3 from the decaying Magnox swarf storage silo (MSSS) at Sellafield ‐ which is likely to continue to 2050.
That could have “potentially significant consequences” if it gathers pace, risking contaminating groundwater, according to an official document.
Thank you to all who have supported this legal challenge. We will keep pushing!
All best wishes
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
May 21, 2026
Still waiting for Appeal News - Here is a 1500’s map featuring the River Calder!
Dear Friends,
We are still waiting for news as to whether our Appeal can go ahead to challenge Sellafield’s latest discharge of contaminated water to the rivers Calder and Ehen,
In the meantime here is an antique map from Elizabethan times of Cumbria stored on the Lakes Guide history website and featured recently by the Times and Star.
The River Calder is one of only a handful of rivers featured on the map indicating its importance in 1573.
Judging by the features illustrated on the map, the river Calder was considered far more important than Lakes in the area, even Windermere and Wastwater now considered Jewels in the Crown of the Lake District are not included as features.
The River Calder in 1573 would have been England’s equivalent of the River Spey in Scotland with its dynamic multiple channel braids splitting and reforming. The Calder’s final reaches before canalisation by Sellafield would have been a braided river over a fertile floodplain with extensive gravel beds and home to an abundance of now rare species.
Some of these rare species like the Atlantic Salmon are still present as rmere remnants of that previous abundance.
We should protect what is left rather than allow Sellafield free rein to further pollute the most important river featured on the Elzabethan map of the Lake District.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our push to raise awareness and protect the River Calder from ever more abuse by Sellafield. What remains is more important than ever.
Onwards and Upwards
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
April 10, 2026
Push Back Against Sellafield’s Contaminated Discharges to Rivers, in the News
Dear Friends
Thank you for continuing to support our push back against Sellafield’s discharges to the rivers Calder, Ehen and the Irish Sea.
Below is the latest news report in our local press- they didn’t give a shout out to our brilliant lawyers Leigh Day so I am doing that here! Also Many thanks to all of you for making this push back happen.
All best wishes
Marianne
Image: the rivers Calder and Ehen pre-Sellafield. There is no return but does there have to be ever accelerating contamination?
A news article re our Appeal is in the News & Star / The Cumberland News
Extract from article below:
Anti-nuclear group to continue fight against Sellafield plan
By Gareth Cavanagh Data Reporter
ANTI-RADIATION activists will continue their fight against Sellafield Limited’s plans to extract water, despite their legal challenge being quashed in the High Court.
Lakes Against the Nuclear Dump (LAND) triggered its Judicial Review after the Environment Agency gave Sellafield permission to extract up to 77,077,224 gallons of water per year from its site.
Group spokesperson, Marriane Birkby, told the News & Star that an appeal has been lodged against the High Court’s decision to refuse a Judicial Review.
Marianne Birkby of Lakes Against Nuclear Dump. (Image: Supplied)
She said: “I think Sellafield was surprised to have a challenge on this and we’re going to continue the challenge because we think the environment deserves better, we think the rivers deserve better.”
LAND’s legal challenge was quashed by Deputy High Court Judge Karen Ridge at a hearing in November 2025. The decision to reject the legal challenge was confirmed publicly on March 31.
While Sellafield’s plans involve extracting water from the site, the anti-nuclear activist group argues that it may result in contaminated water entering the River Ehen and the River Calder.
The activists told the High Court that the EA had “failed to reasonably inform itself about the potential impacts on the Natterjack Toad population.”
It also claimed that the EA “made no assessment whatsoever as to whether there would be likely significant effects on the River Ehen Special Area of Conservation, as a result of the proposed water abstraction.”
But in her ruling, Ms Ridge said that she was not convinced “that there is a real or even feasible risk to a protected site.”
She said that “The discharge point was into the Irish Sea at an already permitted point” and that it was “not arguable” that potential impacts on the Natterjack Toad were not taken into account.
A spokesperson for Sellafield Limited said: “We’re pleased with the outcome of this hearing
Read in full here: https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/26003355.anti-nuclear-group-continue-fight-sellafield-plan/
note: What the article doesn’t say is that our lawyers are the brilliant Leigh Day. Also not mentioned is that while Sellafield told the Judge that the contaminated ground water will be going to the sea (as though thats a good thing) – their own application for the development to dig this massive tunnel 7 metres into the sandstone – says the contaminated water will also be going to the rivers Calder and Ehen via ‘outfalls’ and groundwater – so bottom line is some of the massive discharge would go to the Calder Interceptor Sewer (and out to sea) and the rest will go to the rivers. Apart from saying this is to prepare the ground for the Box Encapsulation Product Store 2 – there is no explanation made to the Environment Agency or the Judge for the actual reason for the over 7 metre deep tunnel which will release this contaminated groundwater – this is near the leaking Magnox Silos. Perhaps Sellafield could be pressed by journalists to explain the exact reason for the 7 metre deep tunnel?
Marianne Birkby
April 2, 2026
Easter Update - Bad News / Good News
Image: Hope Springs Eternal
Dear Friends
Judge Karen Ridge has refused permission for our Judicial Review saying that there was "no credible evidence of any likely significant effect” on protected species such as the Atlantic Salmon, Natterjack Toad and Freshwater Pearl Mussel in the last reaches of the Calder and the Ehen from Sellafield’s tunnelling construction works.
We disagree and are hugely disappointed with the Judges decision.
The Good News is that In the last few days we have been working hard with lawyers Leigh Day on an Appeal. Strength of feeling of protection of the last reaches of the river Calder and Ehen is indicated by the fact that we have raised over £20,000 in crowdfunding . We feel we must challenge the Environment Agency’s rubberstamping of Sellafield’s plan. The generation of contaminated water (radiation/chemical/metals) due to tunnelling into the soil and sandstone beneath the most contaminated areas of the site and the diverting of that contaminated water both directly and indirectly to the last reaches of the river Calder and the Ehen should at the very least be scrutinised by full environmental assessments, that has not happened.
Will keep you posted of our Appeal
best wishes and have a good Easter break
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
March 16, 2026
4 Months and Still Waiting To See If Our Challenge Can Go Forward!
Dear Friends,
It has been four months now since our case was heard at Manchester Civil Justice Centre. Deputy High Court Judge Karen Ridge deferred her decision on whether our Judicial Review challenge could go ahead (re the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp of Sellafield’s latest discharges to the rivers) but 4 months! That is a long deferment.
This case is only taking place because of all your support. Thank you! Please do keep sharing to let people know that Sellafield far from reducing their emissions to our rivers are looking to increase them.
While we are waiting for the Judge’s decision here is a lovely song from Cumbrian singer, songwriter Elaine Davidson called “Can’t Tell the River”
Onwards and Upwards.
Marianne
Lakes Against Nuclear Dump
Marianne Birkby
March 7, 2026
Brilliant News! East Devon Recognises the Rights of Rivers
Dear Friends
We are still waiting for the Judge’s decision on whether our challenge can go forward but in the meantime there is some good news from East Devon.
You may already have seen the brilliant news that East Devon has pledged to recognise the rights of rivers.
I have written on behalf of Lakes Against Nuclear Dump to congratulate councillors on their pledge.
Dear East Devon Council
We are writing to congratulate you on the recognition of the rights of rivers. You have led the way on this important declaration in recognising the vital importance of our rivers. We hope that the rights of rivers will also be recognised in Cumbria where two of the County’s most important rivers, the Calder and the Ehen are routinely abstracted and used as a radioactive and chemical sewer for the nuclear industry at Sellafield. We are currently challenging Sellafield’s latest discharges to the rivers. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-contamination-of-the-rivers/
Please pass on our thanks to all concerned.
yours sincerely
Marianne Birkby
Lakes Against Nuclear Dump/Radiation Free Lakeland
Marianne Birkby
March 1, 2026
Still no word on our challenge!
Dear Friends
There is still no word on our challenge to Sellafield’s latest plan to discharge to the rivers Calder and Ehen.
A letter was published in the Whitehaven News this week which is relevant to our concerns for the safety of our rivers. MP for the area Josh MacAlister is pushing hard for new nuclear build on the floodplain next to Sellafield, This is the area of the last reaches of the River Ehen - the very special (and supposedly protected) river which flows out of Wild Ennerdale.
This is an area adjacent to the sprawling Sellafield site which should be a buffer zone - not another sacrifice zone. Here is the letter below..
All best wishes
Marianne
Anyone for Forever Chemicals and Radiation at “Pioneer Park” aka the Floodplain of the River Ehen? Letter in this week’s Whitehaven News
Dear Editor
MPs and local councillors were gushing last week about building Small Modular (Nuclear) Reactors at what is now being termed “Pioneer Park” formerly “Moorside” formerly Bog Holes at the floodplain of the River Ehen.
Also last week the national press highlighted the dangers of PFAS, forever chemicals in our rivers and groundwaters. There is one industry that holds the public over a toxic barrel telling the Environmental Audit Committee last year that:
“PFAS are crucial for nuclear power plants, fuel enrichment facilities and decommissioning operations, which in turn are essential for realising the Government’s net zero and energy security objectives. In the nuclear industry, there are currently no adequate replacements that could offer the same performance and reliability as PFAS. Nuclear power plants in particular have many moving parts that must operate safely for decades in harsh conditions, including high temperatures, pressures, radiation, and interfaces with corrosive substances.”
So there you have it from the horse’s mouth. The industry claimed by many influential voices to be the “clean” saviour of net zero is also the most dirty, dripping with forever chemicals alongside forever radioactive wastes, including radioactive carbon. How deep is our love for the NuSpeak of “clean” nuclear? Forever chemicals and forever radioisotopes will be the death of us literally…unless.
yours sincerely
Marianne Birkby
Radiation Free Lakeland
https://radiationfreelakeland.substack.com/p/anyone-for-forever-chemicals-and
Marianne Birkby
Feb. 14, 2026
How Deep is the Love for the Nuclear Industry?
Still, still waiting: photo by Marianne Birkby
Dear Friends,Still no word from the Judge about our legal challenge to the latest chemical and radioactive discharges to the beautiful rivers Calder and Ehen.
You may have seen the article today in the Guardian about PFAS also known as forever chemicals. The beautiful Calder and the Ehen which with your amazing help we are aiming to protect and which run through and alongside the Sellafield site have more than their fair share of these chemicals. What isn’t mentioned in today’s Guardian article which highlights the “Race to Find Carcinogenic Pfas in Cumbria and Lancashire” is the fact that there is one BIG POWERFUL industry that appears proud of the fact it just cannot do without PFAS. You won’t need three guesses who!
This is what the Nuclear Industry Association told the Environmental Audit Committee last year:
"PFAS are crucial for nuclear power plants, fuel enrichment faclities and decommissioning operations, which in turn are essential for realising the Government’s net zero and energy security objectives. In the nuclear industry, there are currently no adequate replacements that could offer the same performance and reliability as PFAS. Nuclear power plants in particular have many moving parts that must operate safely for decades in harsh conditions, including high temperatures, pressures, radiation, and interfaces with corrosive substances.."
You have to admire (maybe thats not the right word) their blatant arrogance.
I have just written a letter to the Guardian about this on behalf of Radiation Free Lakeland and Lakes Against Nuclear Dump. Fingers crossed but not holding my breath for publication - the nuclear industry has many influencial friends in high places.
Will let you know as soon as we hear about our legal challenge.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Jan. 16, 2026
Still Waiting!!!
Dear Friends,
The hearing on whether our Judicial Review into the challenge of Sellafield’s latest discharges to the rivers Calder and Ehen took place at the end of November. Incredibly we are still waiting for the decision on whether our Judicial Review can go forward. In the meantime here is a lovely photo of Rowbank Farm. This is just one of the many farms and grand houses in the once fertile plain between the Lake District mountains and the Irish Sea to be obliterated by Sellafield’s sprawl along the once meandering and braided river Calder. This photo along with many more can be found on the Calderbridge and Ponsonby Parish Council website (no endorsement of our challenge by the Parish Council is implied - the photos are in the public domain)
Onwards and Upwards
Marianne
on behalf of Lakes Against Nuclear Dump
Marianne Birkby
Dec. 19, 2025
We are still Waiting!
“Still Waiting” photo credit: Marianne Birkby
Dear Friends,
Many Thanks for all your support for this campaign to protect the rivers Calder, Ehen and the Irish Sea from ever more toxic discharge. Without your generous support this challenge would not have been possible.
I wanted to write to let you al know that we are still waiting for the decision from the Judge as to whether our Judicial Review can go forward to challenge the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp of Sellafield’s latest discharges to the Rivers Ehen, Calder and the Irish Sea.
‘EM-2024-049 Supporting information’ state that ”any discharge point within the CIS catchment may be used by the project”. We assume that these discharge points will not be monitored at all as is the case with the application for Outfall X discharge into the River Calder. Sellafield application to the Environment Agency dated 30th June 2023 : “ It is (Sellafield’ s ) intention, considering that any radioactivity present will be below typical limits of detection (LOD), that Outfall X will be managed through existing management system arrangements.. and will not be subject to any monitoring or discharge reporting against Site limits.’
We also suspect the abstracted toxic ground water would also end up in the Factory Sewer which discharges directly into the River Ehen before it enters the Irish Sea - as outlined in Sellafield’s much redacted papers.
Discharge of aqueous effluents composed of excavation and construction dewatering (generated by rainfall and groundwater arisings) and general construction related effluents from construction activities anywhere within the Sellafield installation boundary, defined by the Site Construction Emissions and Operating Techniques (Site CEOT). | From the collection and potential treatment of effluents to the discharge via the Calder Interceptor Sewer (CIS) at emission point WM6 or the Factory Sewer (FS) at emission point WM7. No cationic polyacrylamides shall be used during the effluent treatment process. The effluent treatment process is specified in document Site Construction Emissions and Operating Techniques (Site CEOT), provided with Application EPR/BM4317IX/V013. The discharge shall comply with the relevant limits specified in table S3.2 of this permit. |
So we still wait for the Judge’s decision!
Here is to 2026 and a renewed push for real protection of our most important and most beautiful Cumbrian rivers.
Wishing you all the best for Christmas.
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Nov. 28, 2025
Decision Pending!
Dear Friends
Photo from Thursday at Manchester Civil Justice Centre - We can’t say anything about it yet as Deputy High Court Judge Karen Ridge has deferred her decision on whether our Judicial Review challenge can go ahead (re the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp of Sellafield’s latest discharges to the rivers). Will let you know as soon as we know Our legal team did brilliantly!
This is only taking place because of all your support. Thank you.
Marianne
Lakes Against Nuclear Dump
Marianne Birkby
Nov. 26, 2025
I am a River Not a Radioactive Sewer - Tomorrow Manchester Civil Justice Centre
Dear Friends
MANY THANKS to all for sharing and contributing to the CrowdJustice fund. Tomorrow we will be at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre to hear if the Judge will allow the Judicial Review to go ahead.
Will be there at 10.30 - the hearing starts at 11am for approx 1 hour. All welcome.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Nov. 22, 2025
Whimsy for the Weekend
Image: The Toads' Tea Party by Beatrix Potter - V&A
Dear Friends
The world is a bit short on whimsy right now so here is a lovely painting of The Toads' Tea Party (c1905) by Beatrix Potter. There is a poem too to go with the painting:
If acorn-cups were tea-cups, what should we have to drink?
Why! honey-dew for sugar, in a cuckoo-pint of milk;
With pats of witches’ butter and a tansey cake, I think,
Laid out upon a toad-stool on a cloth of cob-web silk.
Beatrix Potter would have regarded the Sellafield area as part of the Lake District. Not very well known is the fact that Beatrix Potter was vehemently opposed to the creation of the Lake District National Park (whose line is drawn carefully around Sellafield) believing it would be detrimental to Lake District farmers. She would not have believed that her conservationist bequest of around 15 farms to the National Trust would be rivalled by the nuclear industry’s opposite mission of buying up a similar number of beautiful farms on the Lake District coast and demolishing them.
In 1905 the Natterjack Toads on the coast at Sellafield would have had lots and lots of friends to invite to their tea party. Now 120 years later there is little more than a small remnant and they are under threat of Sellafield’s expanding ambitions to chuck ever more wastes into the Rivers Calder and Ehen adjacent to where the Toads are having their tea-party.
Many thanks for everyone’s generous support for this challenge to the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp for Sellafield’s latest cunning plan.
We will be at Manchester Civil Justice Centre on Thursday 27th November at 10.30am to hear whether the Judge will allow our Judicial Review to go ahead. The toads have their fingers crossed. The hearing will start at 11am and will continue for around an hour.
Maybe see you there and maybe we shall go for a tea party after to either commiserate or to make plans for the Judicial Review.
Onwards and Upwards,
Marianne
LAND
Marianne Birkby
Nov. 18, 2025
Water Water Everywhere!
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for the amazing response to our crowdfund - this is astonishing and indicates how close to people’s hearts is the protection of our rivers, lakes and freshwater from the nuclear waste industry.
Our challenge is to the Environment Agency’s rubberstamp of Sellafield’s application to abstract massive amounts of contaminated groundwater to then dump into the confluence of the rivers Calder and Ehen where they join at the Lake District coast.
As well as using the rivers as sewers (literally in the case of the Ehen into which the sewage from 11,000 souls at Sellafield discharges) the nuclear waste site also abstracts huge amounts of water from Wastwater, along with water from the Rivers Calder and Ehen, this is in large part to cool the very hot nuclear wastes.
Despite the downpours United Utilities in local and national press have told the public to “use water wisely.”
This comes at the same time as nuclear luvvies clamour for dangerous new reactors and nuclear wastes which would be hotter for longer requiring ever more freshwater from the Lake District to cool them.
How many times over has Wastwater been emptied of fresh water to cool hot nuclear wastes?
It must be several times at least. The river Irt at the end of Wastwater needs to be artificially topped up because of the “drawdown” impact of Sellafield’s freshwater abstraction of millions of gallons daily but is anyone looking? Local water guardians looking out for West Cumbrian rivers have been compromised by the nuclear industry. It does seem that a £Million buys a lot of silence.
Well we certainly are not being silent about the Environment Agency's rubberstamping of Sellafield’s latest plan. No-one begrudges them repacking the legacy nuclear waste but it should not be at the further detriment of our rivers. The operators of Sellafield the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (supposed to be focussed on looking after nuclear waste) are also crazily pushing for new nuclear wastes (calling it “clean energy”) on the floodplain of the river Ehen (the area is actually called Bog Holes!). New nuclear build would require ever more ongoing freshwater use and abuse. Crazy times but with your help we are resisting!
Video on Sellafield’s Freshwater Use – here
We will be at Manchester Civil Justice Centre from 10.30 on 27th November to see if the Judge allows our Judicial Review to go ahead - fingers crossed! The hearing is from 11am for one hour. Be great to see you there.
Onwards and Upwards
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Nov. 3, 2025
Date for the Diary - 27th November at Manchester Civil Justice Centre
Dear Friends,
Look forward to seeing you then.
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Oct. 12, 2025
Great news! CrowdJustice have extended our fundraiser another 30 days.
Call of the Curlew
Brilliant news this morning that CrowdJustice have extended our Fundraiser for another 30 days Many Thanks to all who have contributed already. The extension means we can aim to raise funds to cover the full costs of taking this challenge forward.
I am often accusingly asked 'why are you bothered what happens at Sellafield when you live 33 miles away?'
From the plans for an experimental nuclear mine (“it’s just going to be a hole on the West Cumbrian coast”) to the release of toxic discharges into the rivers Calder and Ehen from Sellafield’s reshuffling of the high level wastes (“we have to let Sellafield get on with it,”) so often the response is one of resignation and apathy despite nearly the whole county being within the Sellafield site’s Outlying Emergency Zone Plan in the case of catastrophe.
Even though I know there are so many demands right now on people’s thoughts and energy, I am always taken aback by this apathy and resignation.
There are lots of reasons why campaigners at Lakes Against Nuclear Dump are bothered and they don’t all involve the increasing risks (with more and more nuclear waste arriving in Cumbria) of a catastrophic accident.
Sometimes the blight is insidious and incremental and easy for the nuclear industry to get away with such as the blight being challenged by us right now.
The curlew seen on the fields in Kendal in the South Lakes and celebrated by Natural Kendal overwinters on the West Coast of Cumbria. Coastal overwintering feeding sites for the curlew include the confluence of the rivers Ehen and Calder in the exact same spot where Sellafield is looking to discharge ever more toxic wastes into the Irish Sea.
These are wastes that unlike for example sewage will not disappear with time and tide.
These are forever wastes both chemical and radioactive and given a green light by the Environment Agency just because. Just “because Sellafield needs to get on with it.”
Sellafield have been given a free ride to pollute for long enough and it is not getting any better with “decomissioning” (dispersal to the environment), it’s getting worse.
The curlew might not disappear tomorrow or the next day but it will disappear, unless…..thats why I am bothered.
The curlew’s cry is so very poignant and calls to us all.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Oct. 10, 2025
Otterly Brilliant Big Thank You!
Dear Friends,
photo by Benny Staehr
Sending out an Otterly Brilliant Big Thank You to everyone who has generously donated to our legal challenge to the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp for Sellafield’s latest toxic discharges to the rivers Calder and Ehen.
Without your help we would never have been able to move forward with this legal challenge and provide a voice for the wildlife on the rivers and for the rivers themselves.
Top environmental lawyers Leigh Day are doing amazing work but nevertheless there are big cost risks involved - we are close to covering those risks. All donations go direct to Leigh Day to cover legal costs and we have 2 days left on the CrowdJustice campaign to do just that.
Please keep sharing the page and if you can donate a small amount that would be amazing.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 30, 2025
Freshwaters and Fertile Land of Sellafield - It Really Was!
Dear Friends
Just a quick update to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far and a little reminder of why we need to raise funds to enable a legal challenge.
The legal challenge, with top environmental lawyers Leigh Day, is to the Environment Agency’s rubberstamp for Sellafield’s plan for new discharges to the rivers Calder and Ehen as a result of new build on the site.
Wherever a hole is dug in Cumbria there is water and lots of it (we could never have a tube network such as that in London clay) and this is especially so beneath the Sellafield site which sits above the West Cumbria aquifer on what was once a fertile plain and a dynamic braided river.
“DO NOT DISTURB!"
Sellafield want to dig deep foundations and a tunnel for new build in which to transport and house existing wastes. No-one begrudges Sellafield repacking waste and moving it from one building to another but this should not be at the expense of the rivers Calder and Ehen or create further damage to the already degraded aquifer. The big problem with deep pile driving and tunnel digging on the Sellafield site is that the site is already uniquely contaminated with a seriously dangerous cocktail of radioactive and chemical elements.
The last thing you want to do with this contaminated ground is disturb it creating ever more novel and faster routes for radioactive and chemical elements in which to travel the short distance to the rivers Calder, Ehen and Irish Sea.
Image Characterisation of a fluvial aquifer - Cumbria, UK
MODERN DAY MIRACLE
It is nothing short of a modern day miracle that eels, otters, freshwater pearl mussel and atlantic salmon are still found in the rivers Calder and Ehen albeit in what is a teeny tiny remnant of pre-Sellafield days.
The nuclear site was renamed Sellafield after the infamous Windscale fire of 1957. Long before that fire, the Sellafield site was home to farmsteads There are gravestones in the nearby church to the many “Yeoman of Sellafield” an echo of the many farms which once inhabited this land between the mountains and the sea. Vikings settled here precisely because of the abundance of freshwaters and fertile land even naming the site “Sella” thought to mean blessing or farm.
Photo: “Sacred to the Memory of Isaac Atkinson, Yeoman of Sellafield..1821"
If the water quality of the rivers on the Lake District coast is further wrecked, Sellafield and the EA will just shrug. They did that for the aquifers that Sellafield has already permanently damaged.
POSITIVE ACTION
The decisions of Sellafield and the Envrironment Agency show little concern for nature, otters, mussels, and critically endangered eels, or the precious Natterjack toads that will further be imperilled by this water abstraction.
No-one is trying to stop Sellafield repackaging nuclear wastes all we’re asking is that they do not further wreck our rivers and wildlfe in the process.
By donating to this campaign, you’ve already helped to positively affect the world around us, and we’re so grateful for that.
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 16, 2025
Eels and otters are more important than Sellafield's ‘need' to pollute
The Environment Agency have said that the abstraction of 40,000 tonnes of water per hour of radioactive groundwater, which will then be discharged into the mouths of the rivers Calder and Ehen, will not impact the wildlife.
They’re so sure of this, they decided not to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment.
We’ve already talked about the Atlantic salmon, the freshwater pearl mussel, and the natterjack toad, but the rivers Calder and Ehen are rich in their natural history. There are other protected species that would be impacted by this plan.
Two other protected species are intricately connected in nature, a little like the salmon and the mussels, with their reproductive intertwining – but differently.
The mysterious eel and the charismatic otter
The European eel is a fascinating creature, its epic migratory journeys leaving scientists baffled for centuries. Like the salmon, it travels thousands of miles through ocean to reach freshwater ‘homeground’ like the rivers Calder and Ehen. Like the salmon, it swims through the polluted areas in the mouths of the rivers, before reaching beyond the tidal pull of the waterways.
The otter, like the eel, is a top predator, and a river dweller of both the Calder and the Ehen. She is charismatic enough to have cuddly toys made in her name, but she rather likes eels for dinner, and who could blame her?
Eels and why they’re important
European eel (Anguilla anguilla) by GerardM
People once thought that eels rose up from river mud, such was the mystery surrounding them. They were so plentiful that during mediaeval times, they were used as currency, to pay rent and debts. Eels are now considered to be critically endangered.
Every year adult eels leave the river Calder to make the journey to the Sargasso Sea, east of Bermuda, to breed and then die. The offspring from those Calder and Ehen eels then return, drifting across the Atlantic for as much as 6,000 miles as tiny, fragile, almost transparent eels called elvers.
How do they know where to go? A true mystery, made only more complex by the fact that they share their breeding ground in the Sargasso with American eels, who make their way to the east coast of America. So the navigation isn’t an accident: they aren’t carried on the currents without effort.
Once in the river, the eel develops through multiple stages into a long brown snakelike creature, as much as a metre or more. It can even travel overland.
When ready to return to the ocean, the eel puts on a coat of silver to make its journey to the Sargasso Sea.
Eels are extremely sensitive to chemical pollution, to the extent that their condition can be used for pollutant monitoring. There are considerably less in our rivers than there were, which brings us to the otter.
Otter and otter
Despite a brush with extinction in the 50s and 60s, otters made a comeback to our rivers, present in many Cumbrian waterways, including the Calder and Ehen. Their return has been hailed a success, but as recently as last year, pond owners in local areas have been observing otter forays into gardens, with enormous losses of Koi carp and other fish.
It’s understood not to be due to a sudden boom in otter numbers, but is most likely the 90% drop in the eel population. Eels really are what otters want to eat.
While organisations like the Rivers Trust are doing stand up work (funded by Sellafield in West Cumbria) to help eels make their way past redundant structures like weirs, there seems to be little concern for yet more pollution in the Calder and Ehen.
River Calder Looking Upstream
An agency ‘supposed’ to protect the environment
Rather than giving the nuclear industry licence to pollute without so much as an Environmental Impact Assessment to uncover the potential consequences, the Environment Agency should be ensuring the protection of what is left of our precious wildlife.
If only humans had collective or hive memory, so when one person stands on a river bank and looks deep into the water in the sunlight, they remember the schools of salmon racing upstream to their spawning ground. When eels were so many, they could pay church tithes.
The otter, the salmon, the natterjack, and freshwater pearl mussel – and of course, the mysterious eel – deserve to be protected, and with your help we aim to do just that.
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 14, 2025
Nostalgia: devastating, but, it turns out, also useful
Guest Blog by A Quiet Resistance
Most of us have a small sense of nostalgia, that we shut away inside a box of good sense. Times were different, back when we were kids, even just a few years or decades ago. Not that different, mind. Humans hadn’t yet paved over quite as much paradise as they have now.
Where we’re at today
What makes the present worse is that the ‘paving’ has been done knowingly. Knowing the damage that corporations and companies are doing, somehow, despite the maligned regulations, despite the climate and conservation treaties and conventions: clearcutting and deforestation, mining, desertification, loss of corals, and the great garbage path in the South Atlantic gyre have become ever larger and more devastating.
Scientists have modelled so many iterations of species loss that we don’t know if we’re losing 25 or 175 every day.
It turns out, better computers have done nothing to improve the situation. If anything, they’ve only made it worse, with data centres growing to such sizes that technology companies are now buying up whole power plants to exclusively power their data banks.
The role of nostalgia
If you’re familiar with Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, one of the last lines in the book reads:
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot
Nothing is going to get better, it’s not.
In some ways, nostalgia plays a part in reminding us – not so much what we’ve lost, but that we really could lose the rest of it unless we pay attention.
What have we got to lose if Sellafield abstracts yet more water, and dumps it, irradiated, into the mouths of the Rivers Calder and Ehen?
We might not still have the millions of Atlantic salmon fighting their way up the Calder to their spawning grounds, but we do have a few. And the freshwater pearl mussels. They’re important.
But we’ve forgotten someone. Someone tiny, but important, because there aren’t many of them at all.
The Natterjack toad reservation sits right next to the mouths of the Calder and Ehen. It’s a scruffy patch of ground, significant only for the scattered dog-eaten signs warning walkers to watch out for 5mm toadlets. It’s situated right in front of the Sellafield landfill, where the bodies of hapless creatures that wandered or flew onto the site have been thrown after they were (legally) culled. Some of those were also protected, but Sellafield has a licence.
That license to kill, along with the tiny toad reservation tells a story. It says that enough people made a fuss when the Natterjack toads were endangered by Sellafield business. But the black-headed gulls didn’t have enough champions, so they’re culled for sitting on the roofs of the warm casement buildings.
It says that whatever Sellafield can get away with, it will.
Like the aquifers below it, downgraded for water quality by Sellafield because the company already permanently damaged them.
Once something is gone, it’s gone. There’s no returning to the past, nostalgia or not.
It’s more useful to care about what we’ve already got, than it is to shrug afterwards and tell ourselves there was nothing we could have done.
Useful caring
Perhaps the little reservation for Natterjack toads won’t be affected by the water abstraction that the Environment Agency has agreed to. Perhaps we can cross our fingers, and just hope.
Hope has its place, as does optimism, but it isn’t a strategy.
If we want to keep what we’ve got left, we must cling to it with all our mights.
Every person who’s given money to this campaign, thank you. Everyone who has shared the links and encouraged others to donate, thank you, too. And thank you, also, to Dale Vince of Ecotricity, who kindly promised to match fund donations.
We just need to go that little bit harder, and that little bit more, and then we can fight for the toads and the salmon and the mussels, and for ourselves, so that we know we really did do what we could, fettered in a system that delivers more power to more money.
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 12, 2025
A Week to Go to Raise Funds: Natterjacks Urge Challenge to Toxic Discharges
Dear Friends
Many Thanks to all for donating and talking about our challenge. We have had a BIG boost with the publicity of the challenge by Dale Vince and Dale’s generous pledge to match £ for £ all donations!
We now have just a week to go to raise another £520 to hit our initial target of £2500 (we need to raise at least double this to take the challenge forward).
We have spoken about the threat to the Atlantic Salmon and Freshwater Pearl Mussel by Sellafield’s discharge of 40 cubic metres an hour of contaminated waters into the rivers (this is in addition of course to their existing discharges). There is another rare creature at risk of being harmed by this abastraction of contaminated groundwater and discharge to the rivers and that is the rare Natterjack Toad. The Environment Agency have rubber stamped Sellafield’s plan despite their Biodiversity Officer acknowledging that “ There is a good natterjack toad population in the area. They are a protected species and as they breed in shallow ponds there is potential to be vulnerable to groundwater dewatering.”
Sellafield make a very big deal out of their Natterjack ‘Reserve' but in reality this is a tiny remnant habitat on the Lake District coast of what would have been a much larger home for these now very rare creatures.
It is so important to protect what is left. You can help by continuing to share and encourage others to donate a little so that we can do a lot by challenging this plan to abstract contaminated groundwaters and dump ever more toxic water into the rivers Calder and Ehen.
Sellafield’s Natterjack Toad Reserve.
It is so important that we challenge this.
Thank you for all your vital support so far.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
ps here is a video of Natterjacks - what amazing creatures they are too!
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 8, 2025
Big Boost to Fundraising Thanks to Dale Vince!
Dear Friends
We have some great news about the fundraising. Green entrepreneur and founder of Ecotricity, Dale Vince has not only highlighted the CrowdJustice page on his social media but has also pledged to match £ for £ all donations. This is a big boost to our fundraising to cover costs for the legal challenge to Sellafield’s pollution of the rivers Calder and Ehen.
Please keep sharing and talking about this - we still have a way to go to raise the funds but with all your help and with the boost from Dale we can do it and we can then take forward the challenge.
Many Thanks!
Marianne
LAND
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 7, 2025
A Poem for Sunday - Matty Benn’s Bridge by Dave Siddall
Dear Friends,
Thank you to all for contributing and sharing this CrowdJustice campaign to raise funds in order to take our challenge foward. We have a way to go to raise enough funds to do this but we are going forward on a wing and a prayer. Please do keep sharing the CrowdJustice page.
Top lawyers Leigh Day have put a lot of work into preparing the legal case against the Environment Agency rubber stamping Sellafield’s plans to discharge a new stream of polluted groundwaters to the rivers Calder and Ehen. Here is a poem for Sunday written by one of the supporters of this challenge, Dave Siddall. Matty Benn’s Bridge is thought to be the oldest medieval packhorse bridge in Cumbria and it is under this bridge which the Calder flows before it reaches Sellafield.
Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Marianne
Matty Benn's Bridge
Listen carefully on a frosty night to the boulders flexing their muscles. Passing on the dank and peaty thrust of the fellside thighs. The stones span the darkling river pool, amazed at their tense flight from earth. Each takes his share of the dance and laughs quietly in gravity's face.
Cottongrass sway in the wind on the hairy rump of the hill. The fence posts of grubby reality have to be checked and rechecked every day in case the magic forces burst them asunder, When all comes down to all we are all alone on this planet spinning at X miles a second through the abyss of space and time. So what's one to do but cling to whatever you can in the maelstrom, be it God, love, your stamp collection or a stiff drink.
Have faith in love. Have faith in the flow...the ice cold spume that falls night and day. The rock walls hold the sound of the ever cascading water..seems forever.
But even here, as I stand at midnight, the water is ever so slowly cutting finite whispers of stone and rock spinning them as sands ever downwards. Here look closely..the eye plunges to electron and atom and sees millions of particles sweep and swirl away.
The ancient bridge over a tributary of the River Calder is also known as the Monks Bridge from its links to the nearby Calder Abbey. The bridge is located to the east of the busy Cold Fell road used by thousands of commuters to the Sellafield nuclear plant.
Dave Siddall can be found here: http://www.lakestay.co.uk/mattybenns.html
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 5, 2025
The Beauty and Biodiversity of Braided Rivers
Once upon a time the last reaches of the river Calder were spread across the wide fertile plain of the Western Lake District coast This photo from 1946 shows the braids of the river with the partially demolished Royal Ordnance Factory to one side of the braids. Today the view is very different with a canalised river running through the Sellafield site on either side. There is an excellent description of braided rivers and their importance here https://geologytutor.com/water/braided-rivers-natures-artistry-unveiled/
"Characteristics of Braided Rivers
Braided rivers exhibit several distinctive characteristics that set them apart from other river types. Their wide, shallow channels, braided patterns, and dynamic sediment dynamics create visually striking landscapes that are both beautiful and ecologically rich. Braided rivers are often surrounded by gravel bars, sand dunes, and vegetated islands, providing diverse habitats for aquatic and terrestrial species. Their dynamic nature makes them highly responsive to changes in flow rates, sediment supply, and environmental conditions, shaping the evolution of the surrounding landscape over time.
Ecological Importance
Braided rivers play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem connectivity within riverine landscapes. Their complex channel morphology and dynamic hydrological regimes create a mosaic of habitats that support a wide range of plant and animal species. Braided rivers provide spawning grounds, feeding areas, and migration corridors for fish, birds, and other wildlife, contributing to the overall health and resilience of riverine ecosystems. Additionally, the sediment dynamics of braided rivers help maintain channel stability, prevent erosion, and promote the formation of fertile floodplains that support agriculture and other human activities."
The Calder river will never be braided again in ours or our children’s children’s life time but the least we can do is ensure that Sellafield and the nuclear waste industry do not continue to be given free licence to pour an everlasting stream of radioactive and chemical pollution into the river. Please keep sharing and talking about our legal challenge.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
Lakes Against Nuclear Dump
Marianne Birkby
Sept. 4, 2025
The Best Worker in Europe - The Atlantic Salmon a Poem by Ted Hughes
Thank you to all who are donating, talking about and sharing this campaign to take forward the legal challenge against the Environment Agency’s rubber stamp for Sellafield’s new discharges of polluted water to the Rivers Calder and Ehen.
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 30, 2025
We made a promise ….
Yesterday we went to the River Calder to celebrate and apologise to this beautiful West Cumbrian river for decades of pollution. The pollution is set to escalate with Sellafield’s plan approved by the Environment Agency for 40 cubic metres an hour (yes an hour!) of polluted water to be discharged into the river Calder and her sister the river Ehen.
This is in addition to the existing intolerable toxic burdens of discharge already existing. We made a promise to the river to do everything we can to stop this ongoing and accelerating pollution to our most important resource - our freshwater.
This is so important to us to and everything that relies on the health of the rivers, from the cheerful dipper we saw bobbing up and down the lovely stretch of river before it enters the Sellafield nuclear waste site and to the Atlantic Salmon and fresh water pearl mussel whose epic journeys rely on the rivers being clean from source to sea.
After spending time launching our bark boats with messages to the river we went to have a look at where the Calder and the Ehen meet.
It is heartbreaking and hugely uncomfortable to see the extent of destruction and accelerating toxic pollution - chemical, radioactive and yes perhaps least of all the sewage from 11000 souls working at Sellafield (far more than is going into Windermere) all being discharged directly to the last reaches of the Calder and the Ehen.
This is what the Atlantic Salmon have to run the gauntlet of to reach their spawning grounds upstream.
Photo taken 29th August 2025: The rivers Calder and Ehen joining before they reach the Irish Sea. The Sellafield nuclear waste site discharges nuclear waste and sewage here and at outfalls along the rivers before this point.
Its getting worse
We have to challenge this.
Thank You to All who have already donated.
People can help by sharing our Crowd Justice page or although we know times are hard, by donating. All monies go directly to Leigh Day and will be used to take the challenge forward.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-contamination-of-the-rivers/
Photo taken 29th August 2025: The river Calder before it enters the Sellafield site.
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 25, 2025
Invitation to join our celebration of the beautiful Calder River
Is a river alive?
We think so! Let’s celebrate the beautiful Calder, and launch some bark boats of apology from its banks.
Join us:
Calderbridge Village Hall car park, CA20 1DN at 12pm Friday 29 August 2025
We’ll walk up the Calder in all its summer glory, to a suitable safe spot.
Accessibility: This walk is a short, easy one, but although there are some steps, those can be circumvented using a zig-zag path around them. However, the zig-zags are fairly steep.
Family friendly: All Welcome!
Parking: Calderbridge Village Hall. (also an informal small car park in front of the church just off the main road)
Why we want to do this
You don’t have to be an animist to feel the power and even the personality of a river. Carrying the vital lifeblood of the land, these mighty meandering veins deserve a little respect, even if we can only do it symbolically.
The Calder River in Cumbria has suffered a huge amount of disrespect over the last few decades. Its uncommon braids close to its mouth were forced into a narrow channel, and its waters polluted with various outfalls from the sprawling Sellafield megapolis.
Still in living memory, there was once a time when you couldn’t walk across it without almost standing on the salmon. Now we’re grateful that there are any at all.
What precious creatures are still left in it are under threat, no matter what Sellafield marketeers tell us.
As we launch our non-polluting bark boats with their messages of love, appreciation, and apology, perhaps we add a positive energy to the Calder River instead of a horrible one.
Join us, it’ll be lovely!
note: If you cannot join us on the day please keep sharing to support the campaign and legal challenge to protect the River Calder and the River Ehen.
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 23, 2025
The Challenge for Atlantic Salmon -the Epic Journey Begins
Phew its taken a bit of work from me and lots brilliant work from lawyers Leigh Day but the papers have been filed for application for a Judicial Review of the Environment Agency’s decision to rubber stamp Sellafield’s abstraction of groundwater and dumping of that polluted water into the rivers Calder and Ehen (with no Environmental Impact Assessment or Hydrological Assessment!)
Check back for more details on the Judicial Review but in the meantime here is a snippet on the life of the Atlantic Salmon from the Woodland Trust:
“ATLANTIC SALMON
(Salmo salar)
A fish with a harsh life and epic journey. Atlantic salmon live in freshwater as juveniles and at sea as adults, then returning to spawn by swimming upriver. They’ve long been a favoured seafood, but over-fishing and pollution have seriously impacted populations.”
Famous illustrator Arthur Rackham when visualising his painting “The Salmon Has Many Enemies” for his book on “Irish Fairy Tales” could not have imagined the ultimate enemy of radioactive and chemical pollution as is now proposed to be poured at greater volumes into two of the Lake District’s most important rivers, the Calder and the Ehen.
This pollution is all because of the self styled “clean” nuclear waste site we know as Sellafield.
I have taken on the challenge on behalf of Lakes Against Nuclear Dump under the Aarhus environmental justice rules which allows individuals without massive means to take on legal challenges which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
Even so we need to raise £5000 and are on the way but like the Atlantic Salmon we still have an epic journey to go.
With your help we can challenge the nuclear waste industry’s continuing and accelerating pollution of the beautiful rivers Calder and Ehen.
Please if you cannot donate then sharing the CrowdJustice page is just as important to get the message out.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 20, 2025
Brilliant news that "Salmon breed in river for first time in 200 years"
"The Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT) said discovering a wild-born salmon in the river was the first evidence of successful spawning since they were wiped out by pollution and man-made barriers in the 18th and 19th Centuries.” This is in the River Don in South Yorkshire and is in stark contrast to what is happening here in Cumbria where pollution is being discharged into the rivers Ehen and Calder from Sellafield’s “Factory Works” Rather than reducing discharges the UK’s nuclear waste site is channeling polluted effluent directly and indirectly into the rivers Calder and Ehen.
The Environment Agency have just rubber-stamped another swathe of discharges to the rivers to facilitate new construction works on the site. There has been no Environmental Impact Assesment or research into how this would impact the life of the rivers, the groundwaters, or the nearby natterjack toad reserve. Originally the natterjacks habitat would have been much larger in this area (the Sellafield site has taken over huge swathes of original wildlife habitat and left a token “reserve”).
We want to challenge this and top environmental lawyers Leigh Day are helping us to do just that but we need some financial help urgently.
If you have the means to donate then that would be amazing but equally important is to share this CrowdJustice case to raise awareness of what is going on with two of West Cumbria and the Lake District’s major rivers - the Calder and Ehen.
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 13, 2025
Reports on “Fears for Rivers” “Freedom to Pollute"
The BBC and ENDS reports have published articles on the proposed legal challenge.
In both cases Sellafield say they will not put polluted water into the rivers. This is disingenous - their own application to the Environment Agency states that as well as to the Calder Interceptor Sewer discharges will be made to outfalls to the river Calder (which are not monitored). Along with this the groundwater movements at the site flow towards the river Ehen. The levels of groundwater predicted to be released by pile driving (of 17 piles) and tunnel excavation is phenomenal at 40 cubic metres an hour. Pile driving is known to impact groundwater movements as well as releasing water, usually not so drastic a release of water but Sellafield is basically built on fine grained silt, river terrace gravel and saturated sand and sandstone above aquifers already polluted by Sellafield. The groundwater on the Sellafield site is polluted not least from the leaking Magnox Silos. It's a right pickle but the nuclear waste industry still calls itself “clean.” The EA have rubber stamped these new works with no investigations or thought as to how this will impact the rivers, groundwaters and the health and safety of Cumbrians.
Please share this CrowdJustice page to raise awareness and if people can donate, to give us a fighting chance of stopping this reckless rubber stamping by the Environment Agency of ever more polluted waters into the rivers and sea.
ENDS Report
Marianne Birkby
Aug. 11, 2025
Well, We are Off To a Start!
Thanks to the first pledges we are off to a start - a long way to go but we can do it.
Here is a beautiful photo for a reminder of what we are protecting - the beautiful river Calder before it enters the Sellafield site. This is Matty Benn’s bridge, described by Alfred Wainwright as “thing of beauty” in contrast to the Sellafield site which Alfred described as “an atomic carbuncle.” Matty Benn’s bridge really is “a thing of beauty" and looks so improbable as the arch rises to the sky with the orange sandstone casting a golden hue to the river Calder's waters below. The arch of the bridge is high to allow for the rising of the river.
Onwards and Upwards!
Marianne
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