The Gover Stream ( kw, Gover, meaning ''stream'') is an approximately long

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

located in mid south

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, England,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The source of the stream is at the north eastern side of Blackpool China clay pit at . The stream flows south east through the Gover Valley into the town of

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell ...

where it joins the

St Austell River The St Austell River ( kw, Dowr an Wynyk, meaning ''the little white river'') properly known as the River Vinnick, but historically called The White River, is a long river located in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. . The river has a ...

or "White River". The Gover Stream is the first of the two largest

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drain ...

of the St Austell River. Rivers in the area have problems with

china clay Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...

waste materials, mostly

kaolinite Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahed ...

, entering the rivers and turning them white. This led to the locally named "White River". (Kaolinite is not a waste material of the

quarrying A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

process, but economically not all of the kaolin can be extracted). Suspended particles in the stream are reduced by approximately 98% by

settling tank Settling is the process by which particulates move towards the bottom of a liquid and form a sediment. Particles that experience a force, either due to gravity or due to centrifugal motion will tend to move in a uniform manner in the direction e ...

s at the beginning of the river. This reduces the

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

of the water in the tanks and allows suspended particles to be deposited and later dredged by diggers. Several disused china clay dries are located along the stream showing its past industrial importance. There were also plans to extend the

Pentewan railway The Pentewan Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Cornwall, England. It was built as a horse-drawn tramway carrying china clay from St Austell to a new harbour at Pentewan, and was opened in 1829. In 1874 the line was strengthened for locomo ...

along the valley from St Austell, but they did not come to fruition. Recently the Gover Valley has been under threat due to a plan to use the valley as a tipping site for china clay waste. Waste is a huge problem in the area as for every

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

of kaolinite produced there are on average nine tonnes of waste materials produced; this amounts to approximately 20 million tonnes of waste materials per year. An area of is planned to be tipped on which would destroy the upper section of the Gover Stream as well as ancient

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...

and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. The tip will be landscaped once completed.

References

* BBC news website:
Walk against china clay dump plan

China clay dump plan under fire
* Blueprint for Cornwall 2003 — (

Imerys Imerys S.A. is a French multinational company which specialises in the production and processing of industrial minerals. It is headquartered in Paris and is a constituent of the CAC Mid 60 index. Imerys has operations in over 40 countries and ...

promotional book) {{authority control Gover Stream