Diving in the Manchester Ship Canal?

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by DecoWarrior

ive got the albert dock in my logbook, god it was grim,i remember it was a club trip, and we had a coach up there, the security were well chuffed as we manged to get loads of signs back! and there were loads of swag that shop lifters had thrown in the dock while they were being chased!, there were loads of eels and shit loads of mud, viz was down to touch, although i do recall we may have not follwed best practise and may have had one or two shandies before the dip

them eels , think there made by durex

[DecoWarrior]

aell they ould have been but ive never seen a durex with teeth!

[yazzyfooty]

Originally Posted by Air Guzzler

Yazzy ive a mate who is involved with a BSAC club who tell me that they have dived it ill do some checking and get back to you

John Sorry for the confusion I was informing Manchester Willi about it. I have dived it s everal times now and its a fairly good dive. I do often wonder if anyone has been taken out to sea if they have missed the turning area though or is that a fallacy?

[Richard Mason]

I wouldn't dive it personally - the Shi(p/t) Canal is the receiving water for the Davyhulme Sewage Treatment Plant, one of the biggest in Europe. The quality of the final effluent has improved out of sight in recent years, however, looking at the webpage for United Utilities, I see no reference to any final disinfection process and in any case, it's still very very difficult to remove viruses which will inevitably present. You would be risking oral exposure to these organisms unless you wear a FFM.

On top of that, you will have chemical contamination - true UU will licence industrial discharges to sewer to try to minimise the real nasties, however in an industrial catchment like M/cr, there will be literally thousands of licencees and a limited number of people carryting out compliance inspections, so it's highly probable that there will be a number of discharges contravening licence conditions at any one time, residues from which will also be present in the final effluent.

On top of that, you have stormwater discharges. Ever wondered where all the dogshit off the street goes? Into the road drains which discharge into the nearest watercourse. The Ship Canal receives s/w from a huge area of M/cr and a significant proportion of anything that falls on the street or in a backyard ends up in there.

Add to that cross connections of sewer to stormwater and you have major potential for highly contaminated water courses, notwithstanding the fact that most sewage treatment plants etc seem to have lifted their game considerably.

I'm still actually assuming that this post was a joke but wrote the above rant on the off-chance that it wasn't.

Bottom line, I'd be very careful about fully immersing myserlf in any watercourse flowing through an urban area, especially a massive and old one like Manchester, which has a powerful legacy of river pollution. I know they've found salmon in there, which is great, but I still wouldn't risk it.

[NotDeadYet]

Most (all?) of the Ship Canal and adjacent land is owned by Peel Holdings based in the Trafford Centre. They've been a client of mine in the past, they are a pretty risk averse company so I think you might struggle to get permission to dive for just a jolly.

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

I wouldn't dive it personally - the Shi(p/t) Canal is the receiving water for the Davyhulme Sewage Treatment Plant, one of the biggest in Europe. The quality of the final effluent has improved out of sight in recent years, however, looking at the webpage for United Utilities, I see no reference to any final disinfection process and in any case, it's still very very difficult to remove viruses which will inevitably present. You would be risking oral exposure to these organisms unless you wear a FFM.

On top of that, you will have chemical contamination - true UU will licence industrial discharges to sewer to try to minimise the real nasties, however in an industrial catchment like M/cr, there will be literally thousands of licencees and a limited number of people carryting out compliance inspections, so it's highly probable that there will be a number of discharges contravening licence conditions at any one time, residues from which will also be present in the final effluent.

On top of that, you have stormwater discharges. Ever wondered where all the dogshit off the street goes? Into the road drains which discharge into the nearest watercourse. The Ship Canal receives s/w from a huge area of M/cr and a significant proportion of anything that falls on the street or in a backyard ends up in there.

Add to that cross connections of sewer to stormwater and you have major potential for highly contaminated water courses, notwithstanding the fact that most sewage treatment plants etc seem to have lifted their game considerably.

I work next to the Ship Canal and it stinks, the Davyhulme site is a mile away and it stinks so badly in summer that we had to evacuate the building once. There are more than a few chemical plants along it's route as well. There's no way I'd go near the canal.

They were oxygenating the basin at the Quays to try to improve water quality, they use it for triathlon swims. There's a watersports centre on one of the basins, I'm sure someone on YD said they worked there, but not sure if they do scuba. I had a site there I have noticed a change in water quality over the years, it's gone from thick green to thick brown.

I really don't see the appeal, needles, rat piss, dog turds, chemicals, sewage... I could dive in my local swimming pool for that

[Twinset & Wing]

Hi,


It was me that works at Salford Quays water sports centre.


last summer there was a club entering a proposal to dive the quays, I was involved in this on a basic level, TBH you would only get sense out of the council if you were a club with relyable insurance.


Giles

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Twinset & Wing

Hi,


It was me that works at Salford Quays water sports centre.


last summer there was a club entering a proposal to dive the quays, I was involved in this on a basic level, TBH you would only get sense out of the council if you were a club with relyable insurance.

They must be f---ing desperate.

[Twinset & Wing]

the watesports centre actualy has some good depths and is constantly filtered, also it is sealed off by brand new locks, the water quality has been certified good enough to swim in and is tested 1-2times a week by an independant third party, if the water quality is found to be below standard the center is stoped from performing all waterbourne opperations.

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by Twinset & Wing

the watesports centre actualy has some good depths and is constantly filtered, also it is sealed off by brand new locks, the water quality has been certified good enough to swim in and is tested 1-2times a week by an independant third party, if the water quality is found to be below standard the center is stoped from performing all waterbourne opperations.

salford sub aqua club put down the atrificial reef , to work with the constant filters ,,, give them a ring if you want to go diving i have a number for them
or look them up on the www,,

pm me if you want salford dive clubs number , there a mix bunch and you may find you can get a dive in with them , Not in Quays, they have a few hot looking girl divers too

hope you did not mind me pulling your leg , but you made me laugh .
its nice to see some one keen and wanting to dive no matter were ,,

hope things work out for you ,,, come back soon i alway like a good laugh


ps
will
capernwray is ok ,,, I have never been in the water there myself

but it looks fine and it ant no more then 60miles away 50 mins in a car ,,, cost about £12 to dive there , thats about 50p a Meter if you go right to D bottom

[johnoh]

Hello Manchester Will,
noticed ur avitar looked like the U-boat (u-534) on the Wirral? Do you know if they have started chopping it up yet? Anybody else know ? Was hoping to get a look before it was repositioned to Birkenhead... such a shame...
Thanks
Johnoh



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