Eight kilometres of river restored, 4,000 homes protected from flood and two million tonnes of soil decontaminated
The work to complete many of the environmental improvements at the Olympic Park and secure a green legacy for future generations was completed today, the Environment Agency has announced.
Over the last eight years the Environment Agency has worked with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the London Development Agency and other partners to transform a neglected, run down corner of East London into the largest urban park created in Europe for more than 100 years.
Around 2.5 square kilometres of land, much of it polluted, has been cleaned-up – the equivalent of 297 football pitches. The colossal clean-up operation involved planting more than 300,000 wetland plants, 2,000 native trees and restoring eight kilometres of the River Lea.
The Environment Agency’s approach to regulating the process minimised the amount of contaminated soil leaving the Olympic Park. It helped the ODA with the clean-up of two million tonnes of soil meaning it could be kept on site for re-use, thereby reducing the amount that had to go to landfill by 80 per cent.