Desilting / silt removal

Desilting and silt removal has often been an integral part of our work on lakes, ponds and reservoirs but having carried out two decent desilting exercises in the past year we have decided to create a special file for this work because we enjoy silt removal and would welcome more enquiries.

We desilted previously on Dowdeswell Reservoir and Darlands Lake featured in our contracts portfolio. This year has seen further silt removal at the Wyre Forest Dams and more importantly at Trenance Lake, Newquay.

Silt removal is undoubtedly an ‘art form’. We prefer draining down a lake or pond, allowing the silt to dry before excavation commences.

Basically, we do not like paying to cart water off site especially if road haulage is involved.

We have also pumped and dredged silt on occasions where excavation is impractical but undoubtedly in our opinion excavation is a more cost effective solution.

In many of the country areas silt is an effective growth medium and with the current high cost of fertilizers many farmers are very amenable to the use of silt spread on their land. Our donations to the farmer’s favourite charity also help!

For silt to be used for agricultural benefit or ecological improvement the Environment Agency have to issue effectively an exemption licence under Schedule 3 Paragraph 7 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007. This sounds daunting and is daunting but we have the expertise to ease our clients' path through this environmental maze.

Our silt removal/desilting enquiries are usually dealt with directly by our two senior directors, Dick Cumming and Frank Birch who welcome your enquiries.