I saw this on the news last night and wondered if it could really work.
With me being a bit sceptical in how could you clean up parts of the river that were heavily industrialised and with all the chemicals and such being trapped in the silt and debris.

This was the article from the Herald.

Oxygen pumped to Clyde’s struggling water life

Catriona Stewart
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1 Aug 2011
IT ranks as one of the world’s most polluted rivers, but now fresh life is being breathed into the Clyde with the launch of a new scheme.
Two giant cylinders have been moored in the Clyde to inject oxygen into the water and improve its quality.
The £1 million trial is being carried out on a section of the river that flows past Govan, where oxygen levels are known to be low.
Dr Colin Bean, policy adviser on fresh water for Scottish Natural Heritage, said: “The Clyde could become quite a significant salmon river – but it’s not just about salmon. There’s lots of other species that have conservation value that pass through the Clyde.”
Other species expected to benefit are sea trout, lamprey, eels and otters.
The Inner Clyde Oxygenation Project is the latest step in the rehabilitation of the river, which was polluted by centuries of heavy industry.
Despite steady improvements in water quality since the 1970s, revival of life in the Clyde has been held back by low oxygen levels.
Kenny Boag, of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, said: “Dissolved oxygen [DO] is critical to the survival of aquatic life, and low DO levels threaten aquatic life and negatively impact on other aspects of water quality, such as appearance and odour.”
Kieran Downey, special projects manager for Scottish Water, said: “The trial will enable the performances and risks associated with an oxygen injection system to be better understood.
“This is all part of the development of our long-term strategy for the Clyde catchment.”

This part of the river is tidal. Dont know how this affects the oxygen levels.

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Nature has it's own way of dealing with contamination. The ship building & all the other industry along the banks of the Clyde, caused alot of damage over the years. Living by the Clyde estuary & seeing the changes over the years, the water purity has gone up. One of the big factors, is they, no longer pour raw sewerage into the water. The next thing they should look at is, the prawn boats. They strip everything from the estuary bed, leaving no food or shelter for the aquatic life.

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All that glitters, will catch anglers.

Magic, it will only provide an area where more salmon will lie waiting on the never opening gates at the tidal weir in low water. More pickings for the resident seals.

The tidal weir at Glasgow Green consists of 3 large 'gates' which are lifted to allow water to flow out, and to allow fish in.

The problem here is that the water levels above the weir are maintained at 4.12m, so unless there's a spate, or there's big Spring tides, then the gates just don't get opened.

This is a particular problem during summer months when water levels are low. Neap tides make things worse.

This is a complete waste of money and the £1m would have been better spent thinking of a way to put a fish pass around the weir.

That then would then take away the need to oxygenate the water.

In fact this is the most preposterous idea I have heard yet.

This is what happens when angling clubs neglect their own requirements for training fishery managers, do not communicate with each other, and trust in biologists who keep bleeding the clubs dry for large sums of money to carry out useless habitat surveys. These people can't see that a habitat survey is only worth the next habitat survey it coincides with, and paying these charlatans to carry out surveys every 5 years or more tells us nothing about our river.

Dr ................... is the head honcho in the Clyde River Foundation who take payments from the clubs & associations for surveys.

Dr ............... the Clyde will NOT be a significant salmon river until that tidal weir is by-passed. Already we are noticing drier springs, drier summers and often drier autumns. So the problem with migratory fish locked out the river is only going to get worse.

A wasted opportunity. Are they going to ice the water in summer as well so that oxygen they pump in can actual dissolve?

The tail is wagging the dog here.

---------- Post added at 09:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 PM ----------

Oh yes they do. Every single day SEPA take reports of CSO's being discharged into the Clyde and her tributaries. EVERY DAY.

Why are they wasting money on this project. If the guyfromlaw is correct & the way to the spawning grounds are obstructed, then they should be looking at that problem first.

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All that glitters, will catch anglers.

If thats the case then it's up them to prosecute the offenders. It's very easy to trace back where waste materials are coming from. Also the millions that have been spent on new sewerage works all along the Clyde estuary have certainly cleaned up the water.

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All that glitters, will catch anglers.

Yes, they know who is responsible. Scottish Water. But as they are a direct government department SEPA seem toothless in preventing it.

I'm not an expert in aquatic ecosystems but surely a lack of oxygen in the water is a symptom of a problem rather than the problem itself.
Treating a symptom rather than addressing the actual problem is like using a sticky plaster and seems unlikely to solve it long term.
best case scenario is, it helps and they have to keep oxygenating it ad infinitum?!

Correct Euan. But it's the Clyde where everything is done @rse from elbow. You would not believe what has gone on.

Listed as 27th in Scotland for salmon returns, the river Clyde could and should be doing even better.

But we have a tidal weir which was constructed when salmon were no longer running the river, therefore the weir itself is not 'illegal' in blocking passage of migratory fish.

We also have the weir at Blantyre which is impassable in all but the highest of waters, where the fish ladder has been built on the far side, separated from the main flow by a pointless row of rocks, which confuses the flow, and further confuses, and holds back the fish.

Then there's the sheets of perspex which have been found deliberately blocking the fish pass for the past two years running. Don't they understand that fish not reaching the spawning grounds above messes up their sport down below in future years?

I could go on..........

They would be better leaving well alone & using the money elsewhere. Someones pockets will be getting lined out of this little venture.

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All that glitters, will catch anglers.