>Raw sewage, microplastics and slurry are coursing through all of England’s rivers, putting health and nature at risk, a parliamentary report concludes.
>Agriculture and water companies are the biggest contributors to this “chemical cocktail”, the Environmental Audit Committee warns.
>Car tyre particles, oils and wet wipes are also clogging waterways. The environment minister said the report highlighted areas the government was currently tackling.
> People across the country using rivers for activities ranging from sports and swimming to fishing risk falling ill from bacteria in sewage and slurry.
>The water and riverbanks are also home to rich plant, fish and insect life and are essential to biodiversity. But chemicals, plastics and an excess of nutrients are choking the water.
>No river in England can be given a clean bill of health, the group of MPs on the committee concluded after months of hearing from experts.
Budget cuts are hampering the Environment Agency’s ability to stop pollution, says the report.
>”Rivers are the arteries of nature and must be protected. Our inquiry has uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcement on water quality,” Environmental Audit Committee chairman and MP Philip Dunne said.
“For too long, the government, regulators and the water industry have allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.”
There was foam on the Severn last year. It killed the fishing stone dead. Someone thought it might be car wash run off but it affected miles of the river. Photos from various stretches confirmed this.
So much for the anglers, but the stretch I fish is also used by a canoe club and the usual nature lovers, out for a hike, birdwatching or in the case of one lady I met, out otter spotting.
I do worry about the hardy soul I exchanged posts with on the Guardian site. A winter swimmer. I replied that I also enjoyed the winter, albeit from the bank rather than in the river. I said it made coming home for tea and hot buttered toast so enjoyable. She replied that was the best bit about it!
Give polluters an inch and they will take a mile it seems. The regulatory body, the Environment Agency appears to be utterly useless.
Is there a moment coming where a CEO drinks the stuff, like the leaded petrol incident?
Tory Britain. They don’t care about the environment. They don’t care about the people who live in the UK. They only care about money. Whether they can make money themselves or their backers can make money.
Quality of life for the people they’re meant to serve means nothing to them.
I assume detection limits have also improved significantly which makes the threshold harder to meet
Damn, thats nasty. What about Scotland, Welsh and Northern Ireland rivers?
I went kayaking in a river the other year. Fell in. Picked up some kind of gastrointestinal bug and was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life for 2 weeks.
Later found out the water company had been dumping sewage into it that day.
7 comments
>Raw sewage, microplastics and slurry are coursing through all of England’s rivers, putting health and nature at risk, a parliamentary report concludes.
>Agriculture and water companies are the biggest contributors to this “chemical cocktail”, the Environmental Audit Committee warns.
>Car tyre particles, oils and wet wipes are also clogging waterways. The environment minister said the report highlighted areas the government was currently tackling.
> People across the country using rivers for activities ranging from sports and swimming to fishing risk falling ill from bacteria in sewage and slurry.
>The water and riverbanks are also home to rich plant, fish and insect life and are essential to biodiversity. But chemicals, plastics and an excess of nutrients are choking the water.
>No river in England can be given a clean bill of health, the group of MPs on the committee concluded after months of hearing from experts.
Budget cuts are hampering the Environment Agency’s ability to stop pollution, says the report.
>”Rivers are the arteries of nature and must be protected. Our inquiry has uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcement on water quality,” Environmental Audit Committee chairman and MP Philip Dunne said.
“For too long, the government, regulators and the water industry have allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.”
There was foam on the Severn last year. It killed the fishing stone dead. Someone thought it might be car wash run off but it affected miles of the river. Photos from various stretches confirmed this.
So much for the anglers, but the stretch I fish is also used by a canoe club and the usual nature lovers, out for a hike, birdwatching or in the case of one lady I met, out otter spotting.
I do worry about the hardy soul I exchanged posts with on the Guardian site. A winter swimmer. I replied that I also enjoyed the winter, albeit from the bank rather than in the river. I said it made coming home for tea and hot buttered toast so enjoyable. She replied that was the best bit about it!
Give polluters an inch and they will take a mile it seems. The regulatory body, the Environment Agency appears to be utterly useless.
Is there a moment coming where a CEO drinks the stuff, like the leaded petrol incident?
Tory Britain. They don’t care about the environment. They don’t care about the people who live in the UK. They only care about money. Whether they can make money themselves or their backers can make money.
Quality of life for the people they’re meant to serve means nothing to them.
I assume detection limits have also improved significantly which makes the threshold harder to meet
Damn, thats nasty. What about Scotland, Welsh and Northern Ireland rivers?
I went kayaking in a river the other year. Fell in. Picked up some kind of gastrointestinal bug and was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life for 2 weeks.
Later found out the water company had been dumping sewage into it that day.
Never going in a UK river again.