Corby Community Investigates Metal Pollution in Town’s Rivers
24th November 2025
Earthwatch Europe are working with MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, Lee Barron to organise a community water testing in Corby. The water testing will look at potential metals’ contamination in freshwater. The new initiative will generate robust, independent data to address community concerns surrounding contaminants from the former steelworks.
The testing community session took place on Saturday, November 22nd against the backdrop of the ongoing concerns about potential residual contaminants stemming from the decommissioning of the former British Steel steelworks, which closed in 1981.
Earthwatch are coordinating community-led data collection at 50 sites across Corby. These have been specifically chosen to establish a baseline which will be upstream of the former steelworks site and with others testing downstream to explore the potential impact of the industrial operations.
“We welcome the support of Earthwatch Europe who have extensive experience in working with communities to test water for any contamination. There are understandably a lot of concerns about toxic land, so this is an opportunity to collect independent data. This information will be shared with relevant authorities so they can have a clearer picture of the situation in Corby rather than relying on hearsay.”
MP Lee Barron
Volunteers used low-cost citizen science kits which give an immediate result for five heavy metals including cadmium and zinc. At the same time, volunteers collected additional samples which will be sent off for in-depth testing in a laboratory. The lab testing will be used to give a more accurate picture of the contaminants in the water and to verify the results of the citizen science test.
“We’re really pleased to be working with the community in Corby on this important project. Earthwatch’s involvement offers the opportunity for the local community to investigate freshwater health and possible contaminants through robust citizen science. Whilst this project will not look at any potential effects on human health, we will support the community to use the report to improve their water quality if necessary.”
“Our citizen science metals testing kits were have been used in Africa to examine the effects of artisanal gold mining on freshwater health. Our project in Corby gives us the opportunity to verify the methodology for use in a UK context. This has important implications for the whole country as it means that we may have a low-cost option to test for metals contamination right across the UK.
Dr Sasha Woods, Director of Science and Impact
The data collected at the weekend will now be analysed by Earthwatch’s science team and compared to the laboratory analysis. The results of the testing will be published in January 2026.
