Silty water from cleaning up to 12 million tonnes of rock at a Lochaber quarry will be channelled into three lagoons over the next three decades, it was agreed by Highland councillors yesterday.
Three 400m long ‘finger’ lagoons will be created in the upper valley of the western part of Glensanda Quarry in Morvern for the long-term management of water wash-off from cleaning quarried stone.
The water will be pumped to the lagoons and the silt it contains will settle naturally leaving the water clean.
A weir will be constructed to catch the channelled clean water from the lagoons, and fed through a pipeline to a small power house to provide electricity for the quarry site.
Each lagoon will take a year to construct, and have a lifetime of ten years.
Peat extracted from the quarrying of the lagoons will be set aside and ultimately used for restoration after the silt has settled.
Highland councillors were told the site will be visible to Lismore island and Argyll, but doesn’t impact on special landscape areas north and south or any designated sites.
Councillors also considered concerns by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) about the lack of information provided by quarry owner Yeoman Glensanda and operator Aggregate Industries on the environmental impact of extracting up to two meters depth of peat.
Lochaber councillor Niall McLean said: “I support this development due to economic and environmental advantage to quarry to deal with suspended silts in the water, and the hydro scheme is an added environmental advantage.”