Further enviromental horror on the Wyrley & Essington

Laurence Hogg · October 9, 2011

Most of you will have read the topic about the Wolverhampton pollution, well today the horror extended.

Dear all,

What I have witnessed today at Hollybank basin and Lane Head is beyond reasonable belief. The EA have worked through the weekend attempting to oxygenate the waterway and save what life may be there.

However there are a few problems.

Despite being told the Wyrley had stop planks in, why was the water still flowing west to east? The pollution is now heading towards Sneyd! Beacuse NO stop planks have been put in!! BW has told us a lie.

In its wake fish are migrating but the flow needs to be stopped.

Hollybank basin was considered to be a refuge for fish, off the main canal.

Today the sight there was horrifying, tens of thousands of fish gasping for air. it looked like rain on the water until you got close, this was a heartbreaking scene,

"I for one will never forget the majestic pike, the "killer elite" of fish sitting amongst its natural prey - just waiting to die, its life was over just like the leaf floating aside it".

No one was doing anything to save these animals.

I went back to Lane Head and begged the EA guys to arrange a fish rescue, "we cant do that" was the reply. Then a lady member of EA cam on site and the situation was explained to her, she made some calls and told me nothing could be arranged today.

She also quietly said "I dont care how much you want to rubbish us or say we could have done more" - She admitted they could have acted better, faster and been more effective!

Hearing this I phoned two friends Sue Williams and Vaughan Welch and asked them to call as many people as they could find to get a fish rescue on Hollybank.

Eventually a call came from the RSPCA who will try and do something tommorow, however even with the BW aerators going all night I doubt much will be alive tomorrow.

The local residenst were out with some helping to move larger fish to the aerators in the hope that they may revive, it seemed local people have more sense than the professionals who just stood and watched.

Further afield there is another report of a dead swan (not confirmed), also dead birds being seen and at Wednesfield the swan family is still missing a cygnet.

Locals were providing water and food, but they need moving away from the canal.

I have rescued some fish myself but have noted that despite being put into well oxygenated water some have died within a short space of time, is this an indication of poisoning?

It is hoped tomorrow will see independant testing of the water to confirm what is in it, there is a suspicion that the EA are not sending out the whole picture and if that is the case is there more risk out there than we know of?

Who ever started the fire started a chain reaction, that reaction could have been minimized by the EA and only the Ettingshall to Wolverhampton water, some three miles would have been affected. However they seem to have failed to grasp the seriousness of the pollution

Likewise British Waterways could have done more, without question the stop planks should have been inserted to stop the pollution entering the Wyrley and Essington canal. every narrows and bridge has grooves for stop planks, this is inexcusable.

We now have some 11 miles of seriously polluted canal, destroying some of the best regarded fishery in the country, we are still seeing this get worse - why? The answer is simple in my opinion, bad assesment and management by the EA, lack of awareness by BW.

When I walked away from Hollybank tonight it was getting dark, the frantic movement of the waters was no more except for the pumps, I expect most of what was alive had slipped away, I have known the basin since I was a boy, it was always a nice place to fish ........ but in this age of technology ..... all this "caring for the enviroment" .....

All these clever people with their clever systems, control centres, managers, blackberrys, hi viz jackets, testing equipment and meters, ...

if I hand them the dead pike tomorrow will they have the knowledge & technology to make it alive again?

Laurence Hogg

Edited October 9, 2011 by Laurence Hogg

n.b.Goldie · October 9, 2011

It truly is tragic and with commonsense could have been mitigated. If you have ever seen the film Idiocracy you will recognize the uselessness of today's 'highly trained' 'professional' 'experts'

Regards

Ditchdabbler

stagedamager · October 9, 2011

Truly awful news, it's nice to know there are some people in the world who will jump in and help though, and you should all be proud Laurence. Authorities should hang their heads in shame over how this was managed. Immediate closure of the canal and treatment would have reduced the overall risk. Now what has happened, as ever is beaurocracy has taken over and by wasting time filling all the numerous potential forms in in quadruplicate, and sitting around talking about what could be done, they have used up any time window which could have been put to better use. A sad sad day indeed.

Dan

Laurence Hogg · October 9, 2011

Thanks for the comments, you cannot believe the frustration this is causing. It has taken 35 years to get the Wyrley into the state it is (was) in now. And still it is at risk as nobody yet has stopped the flow even after todays ghastly events.

MtB · October 9, 2011

Is there anything stopping concerned amateurs putting the stop planks in? Even now it migh stem the spread.

Mike

Starcoaster · October 9, 2011

While there is probably some way the EA or BW could legally spank you for doing so, frankly in the face of their ongoing failure and the publicity/ stink you could kick up in retribution, I doubt they would dare.

Particularly as they told you they had already done it...

fuzzyduck · October 10, 2011

Thats a horrible scene youve got there Laurence.

Is a fish rescue as simple as putting it in a bucketc and carrying it gently to clean water?

mark99 · October 10, 2011

What a disgrace, no doubt one (EA) will blame the other (BW).

How about getting onto the MP's office? got to be worth a phone call he may be able to kick ass.

Even a quick email to the local MP with the key facts and a couple of those horrifying photos inserted should create something. Even insert the names of that useless officer from the EA and the BW officer who lied.

Mark

Edited October 10, 2011 by mark99

Bob18 · October 10, 2011

Fish rescue from polluted water is not a simple "chuck it in a bucket" and move it to a better location.

At the very least you have to be certain that you are not moving pollution with the fish, that the fish are not well on the way to dying.

Given comments made in these posts it is obvious that this pollution is pretty toxic and persistent, so needs to be dealt with properly, not dabbled with. There appear to have been quite a number of "lapses of judgement" on behalf of the EA and BW, but do they actually know what toxins they are working with? Given that the source was the effluent from a warehouse fire it could be quite an interesting cocktail - it is reported to have contained, among other things, shampoo and paint thinners while neither of these on its own is particularly toxic together they form a really nasty mixture that is highly dangerous to fish at very low concentrations, basically asphyxiating them by either coating their gills, or stripping the natural mucus off the gills.

Barry · October 10, 2011

Thanks for the comments, you cannot believe the frustration this is causing. It has taken 35 years to get the Wyrley into the state it is (was) in now. And still it is at risk as nobody yet has stopped the flow even after todays ghastly events.

Why don't you approach the press Laurence - they might want to focus on the bureaucratic inefficiency angle

And though I hate to say it the Fire Service are required to protect the environment from their actions taken to extinguish fire. I'm wondering what they actually did.

Laurence Hogg · October 10, 2011

Update.

Out of the fish I rescued most of the Bream died within a hour or two of placement in fresh oxygenated water, if anyone has an opinion on this I would like to hear. Some Perch were also unlucky but I know they are very sensitive to oxygen loss. Other species are fine.

BW have placed a stoppage on the Wyrley between Horseley fields and Birchills.

headjog · October 10, 2011

I checked the local Express and Star, they're carrying a story in Friday Oct 7th's edition.

However, once Google brought up Express and Star, I discovered two previous incidents, April 2009 and May 2011, of toxic contamination in this area! It was only checking the date I realised -previous ones were due to the local sewage works inputting ammonia.Do they not like wildlife in Wolverhampton? It seems like a vulnerable area, due to crass stupidity along the banks, which could do with regular water-quality monitoring from now & a plan of action for the next time!

October 10, 2011

To me this smacks so much of how inter agency rivalry can turn an straightforward incident into a catastrophe...

You can almost sense the 'egos' of the various senior bods dealing with this getting in the way of dealing with things in a pragmatic straightforward manner.

Josher · October 10, 2011

Very sad ...

Canal pollution has spread eight miles Monday 10th October 2011, 11:30AM BST. Express and Star

Contamination in a Midland canal that has already killed more than 10,000 fish has now spread more than eight miles – with some devastated residents revealing they had netted out some fish to save them. The Birmingham Old Main Line canal became contaminated following an arson attack that destroyed two warehouses containing aerosols, paints and oils in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton. Now walkers have spotted dead fish floating on top of the water in Short Heath, Willenhall.

The pollution has already spread to the Wyrley and Essington canal, which travels through Wednesfield and boats are still being stopped from using part of the canal network to stop the spread of pollution. Angie Hodder spotted hundreds of dead fish as she walked along the canal close to High Road, Short Heath, at the weekend. The 36-year-old housewife said: “It’s an absolute catastrophe. I saw hundreds of dead fish. “Some were gasping for air. It was very sad to see.”

muddywaters · October 10, 2011

Thanks for the comments, you cannot believe the frustration this is causing. It has taken 35 years to get the Wyrley into the state it is (was) in now. And still it is at risk as nobody yet has stopped the flow even after todays ghastly events.

Having seen some of the effects with my own eyes I can fully understand your feelings.

Laurence Hogg · October 10, 2011

Good news from the Wyrley & Essington

Today BW and the EA have reacted quickly and a mass aeration of the canal and basin has took place.

A fish rescue has been undertaken both in the basin and further down the canal, some 2 tons of fish had been moved by early afternoon.

MEM are seen here taking more lucky fish to a new safe home.

Some misconceptions may have arisen in the course of this terrible episode so I asked Dean Davies to make a quick summary, here is his reply:

The fire was started by arsonists at an industrial unit adjacent to the Mainline Canal on Tuesday 27th September. What many people will not know is that British Waterways (BW) and the Environment Agency (EA) started dissolved oxygen testing the next day along that stretch of canal and found nothing that was of any concern.

On Friday 30th September we received the first reports of (a relatively small number of) fish dying. Between Tuesday and Friday we continued to pump water from Bradley and had done nothing to stem the movement of the pollution – because the testing had indicated there wasn’t any. During this time the plug of pollution had three to four days to move up as far as Wolverhampton and around on to the Wyrley & Essington Canal.

Over the weekend of 1st & 2nd October the number of fish killed increased dramatically – despite the attempt to oxygenate the water and douse the pollutants with peroxide. By Monday 3rd October both the EA and BW were still convinced the aeration and peroxide treatments would work – it had worked in the past and there were no reasons to doubt it would this time around.

As a result of the factory fire, a range of detergents have entered the canal. Essentially what this has done is stripped the oxygen out of the water. The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was very high on the last set of water samples. The COD is a measure of how much oxygen is required to break down the pollutants. As there has been a vast quantity of chemicals which have polluted the canal, all of the available oxygen within the water is going into breaking those pollutants down which is why there is less oxygen available for fish and as a result, the fish are dying. The hydrogen peroxide dosing and the aerators are working to combat the COD problem which I have outlined above.

By Wednesday 5th October, despite our best efforts the plug had spread further up the Wyrley. During discussions the topic of installing stop planks had been raised. However both organisations still felt that the pollution could be controlled without stopping navigation. Furthermore there was a risk that fish would be trapped against the stop planks without a means of escape. Finally by putting in stop planks it might restrict the movement of the planned peroxide dousing by boat.

Following further discussions we did installed stop planks overnight on the Wyley on Friday night. There was a stoppage notice issued along these lines. After agreement with the EA these were removed on Saturday morning for the aforementioned reasons.

Yesterday fish became trapped in Holly Bank Basin on the Wyrley. A fish rescue is a complex operation that requires careful planning. Our two fishery teams have been on site today (Monday) to remove fish from the canal near Rough Wood Country Park, and from Holly Bank Basin. The complex nature of a fish rescue meant that there were not sufficient staff on site over the weekend to undertake this type of operation. By attempting a fish rescue without proper planning we can make matters worse (agitation of sediments on the bed of the canal) further adding to the poor conditions for fish. Holly Bank Basin was aerated to provide oxygenated water to help the fish. Today we have rescued over two tonnes of fish from Holly Bank Basin, and have been returning them to the canal at Pelsall. This is really good news in what otherwise has been a difficult time for everyone. There is the possibility that some fish did die and they may start to float to the surface in the next few days, so people should try not to be alarmed by this.

Since the beginning of last week we have been working 7:00 am to 7:00 pm each and every day to resolve the problem. Last night the teams were working until 10pm. Signage has been out at various points along the canal from Saturday morning, advising customers and warning of the risks. From today stop planks have been installed at the Sneyd, which are likely to remain in place for some time. The EA are dousing the canal between Holly Bank basin and the Sneyd, i.e. in front of the main plug of pollution. Experts within both organisations are in agreement that this is still the best way to deal with the pollution in the canal.

The plan from this evening is to pump the pollutant into the foul sewer, and have Bradley pumps running to supplement the water loss. Hopefully this, with the continued aeration and peroxide dousing will resolve the problem much quicker.

I realise this has been a very difficult time for all concerned. Nobody, not least employees within the Environment Agency or British Waterways, wants to see this sort of tragedy, and I understand the emotion surrounding the events as they have unravelled. Efforts now need to focus on removing the pollution and returning this stretch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations back to normal for everyone to enjoy.

Dean Davies

Waterway manager

Barry · October 10, 2011

Mr Davies seems to be really really good at spin

Top cat · October 10, 2011

I e-mailed BBC Midlands today asking if they were aware of the problem and it seems not but they are interested. Unfortunately they are confused in that they think I'm the originator of the story and have first hand knowledge (which I don't). So if any of you guys who really know what's going on would like to contact Abigail Uden or Nick Watson on 0121 567 6101. They would like to do a piece on the story tomorrow ( tuesday)

Regards

Terry Rigden

Laurence Hogg · October 11, 2011

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