As an aside - I've just been doing some work involving heavy metals in sediments. The Predicted Effects Level (i.e. concentration above which toxic effects are almost always observed) determined for Canadian Sediment Quality guidelines are given below for Cadmium, Copper and Zinc;

Cd - 3.5 mg/kg
Cu - 197 mg/kg
Zn - 315 mg/kg


Copper levels are below the PEL but the other two are hugely exceeded - so you would expect toxic effects (over and above any physical "smothering" effect of the sediment) just from these elements alone - never mind the rest of the **** in there.

Warren,

Apart from nipping out and getting a BSc in Chemistry is there anything practical that forum members can do?

I'm in DRAC and speak to one of the Andersons pretty regularly for booking some of the waters. I'm not so sure of the area so don't know if this affects the DRAC stretches. But if it does then its worth putting a little pressure on them to find out what DRAC are doing about it. The main DRAC stretch is near Darley Dale, would that be affected or not?

Christ yes! The Pollution could be seen turning the Trent brown at Borrowash. We have fishing slightly above yours and we are very worried. To make matters even worse there have been 6 separate further pollutions from the same site since. Are the DRAC members of the ACA?

The Derby Railway Angling Club is a group member of the Trent District Anglers Consultative Association and a member of the Anglers Conservation Association (ACA).

The above is taken from the club website, so yes !

A method for clean up hasn't even been decided yet. How do you remove thousands of tons of fine particles from the river bed? I do know that the gravel is so compacted in some places it has set like concrete. How on earth the trout are going to spawn?

Justin is dealing with this case for the ACA. Perhaps your Sec' can ask what's going on and offer their support?

Warren - first of all thanks for taking the time and trouble to post this.

I'm amazed this hasn't been a hot topic of discussion on the Derbyshire thread

Looks like the following rules need to be observed:

* don't eat any fish from the Derwent for the foreseeable future
* don't wade in the Derwent if there any signs of sediment about...it's described as being like quicksand, never mind the risk of falling in..
* Both the above apply to any stretch of the Derwen
* Warren - anything else you would recommend? do you agree with the above?

Has anyone got any practical advice on how we can help?

Will lobbying the EA at club or individual level help?

I'm going to be ringing one of the Andersons (DRAC) tonight (Richard is the club sec and he and his brother James are usually pretty helpful) to book some fishing so i'll ask about it.

I have copied a link to this thread on the DRAC forum and vice versa here:-

http://www.drac.org.uk/

You can view the DRAC forum as a guest so it'll be interesting to see what response there is.

These are the people responsible:

World Class Polluters

Hope they've got good insurance....

In simple terms, what exactly has happened and when?
Has there been a fish kill?
Why hasn't this been reported in the mainstream media?

Just read the advice about not wading in the river because this sediment is like quicksand - ye gods, how much of the stuff is there?