Cleaner Water
Blanket bogs are worth protecting – On the hills above the cities of Sheffield and Manchester, lies an internationally important habitat called blanket bog. Healthy blanket bogs can improve the quality of the water that runs into the rivers and reservoirs that provide our houses with water.Join Andrew from Yorkshire Water as he performs an experiment to show us how blanket bogs improve the water that runs through our taps.Blanket bogs are worth protecting because they can improve the quality of water flowing into our rivers and reservoirs.
Blanket bogs are worth protecting because they can improve the quality of water flowing into our rivers and reservoirs.
They lie at the top of the catchments that supply our drinking water. When blanket bogs are in good condition, the water that runs off them into drinking water reservoirs is usually cleaner, thanks to special moorland plants called sphagnum moss.
However, due to a combination of factors, many of our blanket bogs have been damaged. They are often drier and many are actively eroding. This causes carbon, in the form of peat, to be released into the water, reducing its quality in several ways:
- Carbon from peat dissolves in the water, staining it brown
- Peat is also present in the water in small particles
- Erosion may also allow heavy metals to be flushed into the water, polluting it
- Streams may also become more acidic
[continue reading article on the Moors for the Future Website]
Useful Resources: www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk
