Theo
New Member
Posts: 27
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Post by Theo on Jan 14, 2010 9:38:19 GMT
Hi all - Last July I very much enjoyed reading Dominic Garnett's T&S article on the River Lowman in Tiverton (is Dominic a member of this forum?) - and thought about fishing it myself. So imagine my horror when I ran "River Lowman Tiverton" through google yesterday evening... and discovered that the river had been hideously polluted the month after Dominic's article came out, with up to 1000 trout killed by industrial detergent: www.tivertonpeople.co.uk/news/Investigators-Cause-River-Lowman-Pollution/article-1294048-detail/article.htmlwww.thisisdevon.co.uk/news/Agency-experts-pollution-death-toll-1-000-plus-fish/article-1320073-detail/article .html Can any of you locals tell me how bad the situation still is? For instance, how long a stretch of river was affected, and was the whole urban section wiped out? Will restocking be necessary or can the river repopulate with fish trickling downstream or running up? Is the water covered in any way by a local club ticket (and therefore the Angling Trust / Fish Legal) or is the EA prosecution the only way forward - with any fine going straight into the black hole of the Treasury deficit rather than helping the river to recover? Many thanks for any info: as some of you know, urban rivers are very close to my heart, and as John Donne almost said, any river's death diminishes me, because I am involved in riverkind... Theo |
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Theo
New Member
Posts: 27
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Post by Theo on Feb 8, 2010 18:52:23 GMT
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Post by Pete Tyjas on Feb 25, 2010 14:16:14 GMT
Hi Theo,
Many thanks for this.
Pete
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Post by paul on Mar 11, 2010 6:34:05 GMT
Found this on the local news channel.
Sounds they got off very lightly. Will ask EA what remedial steps have been taken. Report says fish killed were mainly 'trout and salmon' !
"A Devon toiletries company has been fined £8,000 after admitted polluting a river in an incident which killed about 1,000 fish.
Broad Oak Ltd of Tiverton admitted releasing more than 50kg (110lbs) of detergent into a tributary of the River Exe in August 2009.
Honiton magistrates also ordered the firm to pay £4,000 costs.
The pollution, which affected the River Loman at Tiverton, mainly killed salmon and trout.
The detergent was released into the river when it was spilled from a storage tank which was being filled at the company's factory.
The firm apologised to the court, saying it was the first pollution incident in 25 years at the site and new safeguards had been put in place."
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Post by paul on Mar 11, 2010 6:34:35 GMT
Found this on the local news channel.
Sounds they got off very lightly. Will ask EA what remedial steps have been taken. Report says fish killed were mainly 'trout and salmon' !
"A Devon toiletries company has been fined £8,000 after admitted polluting a river in an incident which killed about 1,000 fish.
Broad Oak Ltd of Tiverton admitted releasing more than 50kg (110lbs) of detergent into a tributary of the River Exe in August 2009.
Honiton magistrates also ordered the firm to pay £4,000 costs.
The pollution, which affected the River Loman at Tiverton, mainly killed salmon and trout.
The detergent was released into the river when it was spilled from a storage tank which was being filled at the company's factory.
The firm apologised to the court, saying it was the first pollution incident in 25 years at the site and new safeguards had been put in place."
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Theo
New Member
Posts: 27
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Post by Theo on Mar 11, 2010 14:55:30 GMT
Found this on the local news channel. Sounds they got off very lightly. Will ask EA what remedial steps have been taken. Report says fish killed were mainly 'trout and salmon' ! "A Devon toiletries company has been fined £8,000 after admitted polluting a river in an incident which killed about 1,000 fish. Broad Oak Ltd of Tiverton admitted releasing more than 50kg (110lbs) of detergent into a tributary of the River Exe in August 2009. Honiton magistrates also ordered the firm to pay £4,000 costs. The pollution, which affected the River Loman at Tiverton, mainly killed salmon and trout. The detergent was released into the river when it was spilled from a storage tank which was being filled at the company's factory. The firm apologised to the court, saying it was the first pollution incident in 25 years at the site and new safeguards had been put in place." Thanks for this Paul - I'd missed it myself. I'm taking the liberty of cross-posting to the Fly Fishing Forums, since the more people know about this stuff, the better... Theo |
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Post by BarleBlanker on Mar 11, 2010 17:45:19 GMT
Well found Paul. The salmon killed will have been fry/parr, not that that makes it any less bad  Andy |
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Post by paul on Mar 17, 2010 19:12:37 GMT
Got s reply from the EA and copy it below for your interest.
Dear Mr Fitzmaurice
Nigel Guy has passed your email to me as I am the fisheries bailiff for the River Exe and tributaries. It is usual after an incident of this nature to monitor fish stocks in the affected stretch of watercourse, this will probably be done later in the year when the results of last years spawning can be established. In my experience natural recruitment starts to occur quite quickly after a pollution with fish being moved downstream during subsequent spate conditions, although it will take some months for populations to return to within normal parameters. I can confirm that fish stocks upstream of the pollution were unaffected although the fish killed will be a loss of spawning potential to the river and will obviously impact on future recruitment to the river as a whole.
With regard to restocking, the Environment Agency's view is that it is better if at all possible to allow natural recruitment to occur as this preserves the genetic integrity of the existing population. However I think it likely that riparian organisations may with regard to salmon seek to restock with juveniles reared from Exe broodstock, although I am unable to confirm this at this stage.
If I can be of any further help do to hesitate to contact.
Nick Maye
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