River Devon in Clackmannanshire has been severly polluted by some sort of acid spill.
Scottish water spent two days trying to clean up spill before SEPA were informed.
The spill is still being investigated, but Scotish water aint saying ought!
Lots of dosh has been spent over the last twenty years improveng this river, now "a significant fish kill" has occured, and people have been advised to "not swim or fish in the water".
Aint pointing the finger, but Scottish water have to stand up and answer the questions!
What on earth have they discharged, by accident or otherwise, and what are they going to do to ensure river is reinstated, and it doesnt happen again.

whole story here

River acid spill leaves fish dead -  Environment | MSN News - MSN UK


the very fact that this only appeared in the public domain several days after event smacks of cover up and avoidance.

regards
bert

If people are being advised not to swim or fish in the river days after the event, how bad must it have been at the time of the event?
If somebody knew about it at the time and failed to warn the public, surely that must amount to a criminal act and somebody should be held personally liable.

Devastating news.

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Bloody hell,what a disaster.Those responsible need to be brought to task.

Jim

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Hope so Jim, but the fact that aint in public domain one week later is a bit odious.
I only found out cos i am a bit of a nerd re the the world wide environment stories on msn.
Sent e-mail to pat at forth federation, but he is on hols till tomorrow.
What is more perturbing, is if chemical is that bad to wipe out everything in river Devon, it is now in Forth, going in and out on every tide!!!!!!!
regards
bert

Unfortunately Scottish Water are a government agency, and not a private company as many would believe.

SEPA will only attend incidents (wait for it), at weekends, evenings and bank holidays, if one of the following criteria is met.

a) A fish kill involving 1000 fish, or more.

or

b) If the pollution affects 5km of water, or more.

By the time they turn up most of the damage is done, and the majority of the evidence has gone.

Scottish Water continues to discharge untreated effluent into our rivers on a DAILY BASIS. SEPA know about it. I met with two SEPA representatives a few weeks back and this is happening every day of the year, according to one area manageress at SEPA.

SEPA accept that Scottish Water are dumping untreated sludge during periods of low water and drought, which they should not be doing. When SEPA carry out each investigation I could word their explanation for them, it's always the same. "Scottish Water accept there has been a problem and they are working on it."

Appears that in this case the sottish water strategy did not work!
sepa were not actually called out, but just happened upon the scottish water people trying to clean up river late monday, after incident had happened late saturday/sunday!
scottish water are now deferring answers to sepa!
in terms of your(or sepa's) criteria re incidents, this one is far, far, more than said criteria, with the public being advised to stay away, not by popular press, but by notices on riverside!!
so far scottish water havent come out with the""Scottish Water accept there has been a problem and they are working on it." statement.
that in itself is a worry.
regards
bert

Yep, quite scandalous that they seen fit not to call in SEPA. Why should they though? SEPA are toothless so there's really no recrimination. SEPA should be disbanded soon, and something with more bite launched in it's place. I hear whispers that's actually on the cards.

An absolute disaster for this lovely wee river

Pete

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New rainbow PB 22 lbs Bangour 23/10/2011

I have quite a bit of dealing with SEPA and what you are saying is spot on.
They have been decimated ever since the SNP have been in power , we all know that salmon farming is not regulated as much now by them and is a favourite of Alex Salmond due to the jobs in rural areas that it provides.

It will of course depend on what the specific chemical was that spilled, however acid is one of the least problematic with regards to long term imapct. Strong acids and strong bases will wash out of the system after the first strong rains. And, the more rain flushing it out the better as it willl dilute and the effects minimized. If it were a toxin or something else noxious, it would take years for the sediment to clear as some toxins kill at PPB levels.

There was an incident up the road from my family's cabin in north central PA where a train tanker carrying concentrated NaOH overturned. The first stream it hit was a favorite brook trout stream. That flowed down behind the camp through a class A trout stream which flows into a large river system. I think it was something like 50 miles of river was lost (total). After the next spring floods, the damage was gone. Now the process has started to build back up the life. Native brook trout from nearby streams have been used to kick off the fish populations, and the insects have started to return. It will still be another 10 years before it is back to normal though.

Thanks,
Rick