River Aire east of Castleford; Ferrybridge C, Eggborough and Drax. Drax takes its cooling water from the Ouse, but both Ferrybridge and Eggborough draw their water from the Aire. Both of these plants stopped generating in 2016, with Eggborough being a stand-by for capacity problems until March 2017. A hydroelectric power station was installed on the Brotherton Weir at Knottingley in November 2017. The £7.5 million project is expected to deliver 500 kilowatts per year and be operational for 100 years. Due to the Aire flowing through the former industrial landscape of West Yorkshire, it had a reputation as being heavily polluted.
John Erle-Drax name Richard Drax. John Erle-Drax John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax (6 October 1800 – 5 January 1887) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) during the Victorian era. Born John Sawbridge, he was the son of Samuel Elias Sawbridge, of Olantigh in Kent, and grandson of John Sawbridge, Lord Mayor of London in 1775. John married Jane Frances Erle-Drax-Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor, in 1827. On 13 August 1828, his wife's brother Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor died unmarried, and he succeeded to her family estates, including Charborough House, assuming the surname of Erle-Drax. He was a captain in the East Kent Militia,