What has gone wrong in Whittlesey, where 900 fish have died?
Almost 900 fish have died in the Cambridgeshire town of Whittlesey in recent weeks – but the official cause remains a mystery.
Anglers and environmentalists have blamed the mass deaths on “disgusting” river pollution after a malfunction saw Anglian Water’s pumping station discharge sewage in King’s Dyke for 23 hours straight over the weekend of 22 September.
The Environment Agency said it was a “category one incident”, meaning it has a serious, persistent or extensive impact on the environment.
Roach, pike and perch died, with hundreds of their carcasses seen floating in the river. When i visited this week, anger among locals had yet to subside.
“This is about the third time in three years that we’ve had pollution,” said Roy Bridson, vice president of Whittlesey Angling Association.
He claimed the EA called him last month to warn about the dead fish, as they had done last year after 100,000 fish died when the nearby River Nene at Ferry Meadows became polluted.
During that incident in December people were warned to stay away from the area’s waterways, while the Nene Park Trust warned the pollution could have a devastating impact on future breeding.
At that time, an EA investigation found fuel and solvents were to blame but it was not able to pinpoint the source, instead saying an unidentified pollutant caused “significant damage” as it flowed through the watercourse before reaching the river.
Mr Bridson believes sewage is to blame for the latest deaths.
“It’s absolutely disgusting. I’ve got children that fish the river after school and on weekends,” he said.
“Plus we have national fishing matches on it. It’s a lot of sporting activity, kayaking, waterboarding and it just destroys the river. Even the swans disappeared off the river, and the ducks because they didn’t want to get ill.”
Local MP and shadow environment minister Steve Barclay has demanded “clarity” from Anglian Water over how long the mechanical failure lasted and how much sewage was discharged.
The water company said due to heavy rains at the time any spill from the pumping station would have been heavily diluted “and is definitely not raw sewage”.
Water companies are allowed to use “storm overflows” to discharge waste during periods of heavy rain to stop their systems from getting overwhelmed and sewage backing up into people’s homes.
The director of the Clean Rivers Trust said pollution from food industry processing works in the area have also contributed to harming the local waters.
Dr Harvey Wood blamed a lack of oxygen in the water – rather than any sewage – for the fish deaths, adding that thousands more could have died if the river hadn’t been oxygenated.
“The river is suffering a great deal from the food industry, as well as food processing works all around that area, from potatoes particularly,” Mr Wood said.
“The discharges from their sewage works are also high in nitrates and ammonia nitrogen, which doesn’t help the matter.”
Rob Harris, chairman of Peterborough & District Angling Association, said the latest incident shows “clearly, we’re still not valuing the life in the river.”.
“It’s a disappointment, given the amount of issues we’ve had, with such a large-scale pollution last year, to see that we’re still going through such kinds of issues,” he said.
“Necessity obviously makes this difficult, but animal welfare should be important, and fish are as important as any other animal.
“We’ve spent tens of thousands of pounds this year as a club on the river to try and improve habitat and improve spawning areas for fish and for fish to be killed artificially is obviously not good.”
Photos sent to the angling association showed dead fish floating in the water last month, with the EA investigating low levels of oxygen and elevated levels of ammonia.
Mr Barclay, the Tory MP for North East Cambridgeshire, said “no evidence” had been presented to him of another possible cause of pollution, other than a sewage discharge.
“The tests from the Environment Agency should help confirm the cause of the dead fish and the results should be published quickly,” he added.
The same Anglian Water storm overflow was triggered during heavy downpours on Tuesday, and continued for more than 27 hours.
Anglian Water workers had been in the area for the past week aerating the water and sampling the river for ammonia to assist the EA.
The company says that while their storm overflow operated as permitted during heavy rainfall, it didn’t necessarily mean that had impacted the water
They also pointed to “several other potential sources of pollution which do not belong to Anglian Water”.
Anglian Water and the EA were contacted for comment.