{"id":779797,"date":"2026-02-21T17:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/779797\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:11:18","slug":"dont-drink-tap-water-villagers-told-after-oil-spills-into-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/779797\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t drink tap water’ villagers told after oil spills into river"},"content":{"rendered":"

People in a Highland<\/strong> village have been warned not to drink tap water after a \u201cmajor contamination incident\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has sent officers to Killin after multiple reports of oil in the River Dochart nearby on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Scottish Water said that over 500 domestic and business properties could be affected.<\/p>\n

They said their specialist incident management team went to the River Dochart, where the local treatment works draws water from, and closed the intake to the treatment works.<\/p>\n

Samples are being taken from the water network, and an investigation is ongoing as they hunt to identify the source of the spill.<\/p>\n

The River Dochart runs into Loch Tay after a series of cascading waterfalls at the village.<\/p>\n

\"TheSTV NewsThe River Dochart near Killin. STV News<\/p>\n

Killin Community Council shared an update from the village\u2019s resilience team working with Scottish Water.<\/p>\n

Residents have been advised not to drink tap water until further notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major contamination incident,\u201d a statement from the community council read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water supply to Killin has now been shut down while the system is being cleaned and flushed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater tankers will be brought into the village to provide a temporary supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease share this information with neighbours and anyone without access to social media, and check in on anyone who may need assistance. Further updates will follow as soon as they are available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scottish Water\u2019s Head of Customer Water Services, John Griffen, said: \u201cWe appreciate the inconvenience this advice not to use water will bring to people and businesses in the affected areas, but\u00a0at all times\u00a0our priority\u00a0has to\u00a0be the protection of public health.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe incident management team is continuing to monitor the\u00a0situation, liaising with NHS and SEPA. We will update customers regularly however we do anticipate this disruption to last several days, and thank customers for their patience and understanding while we work to restore their supply.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said: \u201cSEPA received several reports of oil within the River Dochart, near Killin, on Thursday evening and overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers are on site this morning (Friday, February 20) to identify the source and investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to thank those who reported the incident to SEPA and encourage anyone who witnesses a pollution incident to contact us immediately on 0800 80 70 60<\/strong> or by submitting an online report with as much information as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

An information point for customer support is being located at McLaren Hall, Main Street, Killin, FK21 8TN.<\/p>\n

Bottled water collection points are being set-up and locations will be confirmed shortly, and Scottish Water also confirmed that door-to-door bottled water deliveries will commence this afternoon for all affected customers.<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People in a Highland village have been warned not to drink tap water after a \u201cmajor contamination incident\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-779797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116109737539492681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}