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River Tawe

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Tawe at Pontardawe
Tawe at Pontardawe

The River Tawe (; Welsh: Afon Tawe [ˈtau.ɛ]) is a 30 miles (48 km) long river in South Wales. Its headwaters flow initially east from its source below Llyn y Fan Fawr south of Moel Feity in the Black Mountains, the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons National Park, before the river turns south and then southwest to its estuary at Swansea. Its main tributaries are the right bank Upper and Lower Clydach Rivers and the Afon Twrch. The total area of the catchment is some 246 km2 (95 sq mi). The Tawe passes through a number of towns and villages including Ystradgynlais, Ystalyfera, Pontardawe, and Clydach and meets the sea at Swansea Bay below Swansea. The Tawe Valley (Cwm Tawe in Welsh) is more commonly known as the Swansea Valley. Ownership of the riverbed was granted to the Duke of Beaufort in the 17th century by Charles II resulting in exclusive mineral and fishing rights, which is extended as far as requiring permission and payment for bridges which are built over it. This was last exercised in 2008 when Swansea Council was required to pay £281,431 to the estate, as revealed by a Freedom of Information request.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article River Tawe (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

River Tawe
Lock, Swansea Waterfront

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Wikipedia: River TaweContinue reading on Wikipedia

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N 51.616666666667 ° E -3.9333333333333 °
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SA1 1WG Swansea, Waterfront
Wales, United Kingdom
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Tawe at Pontardawe
Tawe at Pontardawe
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Swansea Barrage
Swansea Barrage

The Swansea barrage (or the Tawe barrage) was completed in 1992 creating a new marina at the mouth of the River Tawe extending the leisure boat facilities already being offered by the old South Dock.The barrage structure includes a boat lock, spillway, fish pass and generator turbine. The turbine serves a dual use: acting as a power generator for the National Grid as well as being used to pump water back into the Tawe river system. The barrage has an installed generating capacity of 200kW.The barrage scheme gave rise to a number of environmental concerns. Fish navigation up the river and dissolved oxygen levels were problems that arose after completion. Salt water that came in at high spring tides sank to the bottom and stayed there, reducing oxygen levels. The Environmental Advice Centre was commissioned to undertake an aeration scheme trial in the River Tawe in the summer of 1998. The system was based on a diffuser design and propeller mixer, which proved highly effective at exporting the saltwater from the deep area of the trial site and raising dissolved oxygen concentrations at the bed. Following the success of the trial system a more extensive system was designed for the river for installation in 1999 -2000. The first stage of the installation of the designed system was undertaken in June 1999 and comprised a combination of diffusers and a large propeller mixer. The installation was conducted using a diving team to ensure optimal location of the diffusers within the river channel. The installation will be completed over two years to treat all the problem areas over a 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long reach of river and ameliorate the poor water quality presented in these areas. Monitoring results from the system installed to date have indicated that aeration has effectively raised the oxygen concentration and assisted in the export of saline water from the system. Following the success of this work the Environmental Advice Centre is currently examining designs for other reaches of tidal river within the United Kingdom that display similar problems. Following the success of the River Tawe aeration scheme the neighbouring Welsh city of Cardiff used the same method to improve the quality of the water in its newly created bay. Other fears that arose with the building of the barrage such as the raising of the water table causing ground subsidence problems in the low-lying areas around the River Tawe. Since completion, no significant subsidence problems have arisen.