Pollution Spill Described as 'Ecological Disaster' for River Brent
Endangered eels pictured gasping for air due to oxygen pollution
The eels crowd around a pipe from which clean water is flowing. Picture: Michael Kenny
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A pollution slick measured at nearly two miles long has caused significant damage to the River Brent and has been described as an ‘ecological disaster’.
Eels living in the river in Ealing have been pictured crowding at the surface attempting to get oxygen from a clear water pipe as a film of brown scum covered the river surface. This ‘sewage fungus’ is believed to have come from further up the river at Alperton.
Thames Water says it caused by a ‘misconnection’ by a third party and it is believed that food waste or cooking oil could have found its way into the outflow pipe.
The eels were filmed by Ben Morris, the founder of local campaign group CleanUptheRiverBrent (CURB), who described the river as looking like a latte coffee had been tipped into it on Sunday and Monday morning (18 & 19 September).
The eels generally live at the bottom of the river in the silt and, if they come to the surface, it is an indication of severe oxygen depletion which, puts at risk an already endangered species, and will have implications for all wildlife.
A Thames Water spokesperson said, “We have received reports of a sewage discharge into the River Brent. Our network engineers are on site and believe this to be a third-party discharge due to a misconnection [of the pipes]. Our team has stopped the discharge and will be investigating further.”
The Environment Agency says it has tested the water in the area and ruled out the discharge being sewage.
A brown film was observed on the surface of the river. Picture: Michael Kenny
This is the second major incident recently at the river. In October 2021, a large number of dead fish were spotted on the riverbank. Since then, there have been a number of clean up operations in the area with local volunteers taking part including ones organised by LagerCan.
Councillor Athena Zissimos, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Hanger Hill ward and colleagues have written to the CEO of Thames Water about the incident which they described as an ecological disaster. She said, “Liberal Democrats say it is not okay that Thames Water pollutes the River Brent, because the government has weaken laws around environmental protections, instead of strengthening them as it had promised. Thames Water are happy to pay out dividends to shareholders rather than spend the money to sort out their overflow issues. We want to see Thames Water prosecuted.”
One local campaigner told us, “The chances are that low level pollution events are taking place all the time from this outflow pipe. The scale of this spill may actually serve to put a spotlight on the broken system of monitoring and regulation which allows this to happen although I’m not holding my breath for change in the immediate future.”
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September 22, 2022
