Any geologists on here? Orange flood on road.

[Globalti]

There's a steep lane called Hollowhead Lane in Wilpshire, just north of Blackburn. For weeks clear water has been running out of the verge and down the hill but now it has intensified in volume and turned bright orange.. I rode my best bike through it this afternoon and got home splattered with orange dots then spent 90 minutes cleaning it all off. It smells of iron and I guess that if it was coming from a burst cast-iron main the fast flow would have washed away any iron colour by now so I reckon it's coming out of the ground where it is running through iron-bearing rock. I often see this here in Lancashire and have even stopped and tasted the water and found it strongly metallic and undrinkable.

What's more worrying is that this iron discolouration seems to deposit a slippery orange slime on everything it touches, meaning that Hollowhead lane is going to be lethal to cyclists. The orange colour is already spreading all down the road and all over parked cars. I've reported it to United Utilities.

Has anybody else seen this phenomenon and what's the geological explanation? Around here we have gritstone and limestone and some shale.

 

[Aravis]

It's likely to be chalybeate. You're brave to taste it, although it sounds as though it should be good for your health!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalybeate

I presume from what you say that someone has been diverting a watercourse somewhere, and if it's causing a hazard I would think you're right to report it.

 

[coffeejo]

<insert "you've been Tangoed" joke>

 

[Deleted member 23692]

it's usually a sign of an iron based compound.....of which there are many.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

It's likely to be chalybeate. You're brave to taste it, although it sounds as though it should be good for your health!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalybeate

I presume from what you say that someone has been diverting a watercourse somewhere, and if it's causing a hazard I would think you're right to report it.

From the citing above:

Early in the 17th century, chalybeate water was said to have health-giving properties and many people have promoted its qualities. Dudley North, 3rd Baron North discovered the chalybeate spring at Tunbridge Wells in 1606. Dudley North’s physician claimed that the waters contained ‘vitriol’ and the waters of Tunbridge Wells could cure:

"the colic, the melancholy, and the vapours; it made the lean fat, the fat lean; it killed flat worms in the belly, loosened the clammy humours of the body, and dried the over-moist brain."
He also apparently said, in verse:

"These waters youth in age renew
Strength to the weak and sickly add
Give the pale cheek a rosy hue
And cheerful spirits to the sad."
The English physician Thomas Sydenham prescribed chalybeate waters for hysteria[citation needed].

It sounds like utterly good stuff and @Globalti will soon be fat, wormless and have a drier brain, amongst some of the benefits. I just hope none of the ladies in his group tasted any of it.

 

[steve50]

Does it look like this, we had this happen just around the corner from us, despite drilling down over fifteen metres the water board have been unable to find the source of the coloured water and they have now laid pipework to redirect the water into the road drains. It is believed the water has come from old mine workings of which there are many locally.

 

[Globalti]

That's exactly what it looks like and yes, I believe it's coming out of the ground and not a pipe. I've seen it elsewhere in Lancashire. I bet it's running out of a seam of iron-bearing rock.

 

[Markymark]

It's fine to drink. In fact they bottle it and sell it as Irn Bru to Scots.

 

[growingvegetables]

... old mine workings

That was my first thought; there's plenty spots around the eastern side of Leeds where the water in becks and drains has that sort of discoloration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mine_drainage

Not a healthy drink!

 

[machew]

It's fine to drink. In fact they bottle it and sell it as Irn Bru to Scots.

Not a healthy drink!

 

[MrPie]

Crackin for hangovers tho.....

 

[Yellow Saddle]

It's fine to drink. In fact they bottle it and sell it as Irn Bru to Scots.

You! You are walking a fine line my friend.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Does it look like this, we had this happen just around the corner from us, despite drilling down over fifteen metres the water board have been unable to find the source of the coloured water and they have now laid pipework to redirect the water into the road drains. It is believed the water has come from old mine workings of which there are many locally.
View attachment 136975

Impressive photo that. It is amazing how big the burden of yesterday's mining operations have on today's generation. Acid mine water and asbestos wastelands come to mind but there are many others, like this post demonstrates.