News From OilFiredUp
RSS
Environment Agency tackles Bridgwater Oil Spill
10th June 2004
The Environment Agency has swung into action cleaning up an oil spill on the River Brue near Bridgwater.
Almost a kilometre of the river at Highbridge has been polluted by diesel or heating oil. Flood defence and emergency workforce officers immediately attended the scene after being alerted by members of the public early yesterday.
A boom has been positioned across the river to collect the oil that is being tankered away. It is estimated that approximately one tonne of oil escaped into the Brue. The Environment Agency is investigating the source of the pollution that is believed to have come from a nearby industrial estate.
Flood Defence officers have operated the nearby Highbridge Sluice to speed up the clean-up operation by increasing the water flow in the River Brue to draw the oil into the boom.
The spillage has occurred within a local nature reserve and English Nature has been informed. A specialist firm of contractors has been brought in tanker away the oil that is either a kerosene type heating oil or diesel. The recovery operation has been hampered by high winds and tides.
“This is a serious incident and we are working hard to trace the source of the pollution. So far there have been no fish deaths, but we are continuing to monitor water oxygen levels,” said Ian Myers for the Environment Agency.
By containing the pollution within the river the clean-up team hopes to prevent the oil from being washed into the estuary, part of the Bridgwater Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), where it could contaminate mudbanks that are important to wading birds and other wildlife.
The most likely source of the spillage is the nearby Walrow and Isle Port industrial estates that are both being investigated. A local building site is also being checked.
Members of the public can report pollution incidents by calling the Environment Agency"s free 24 hour hotline 0800 80 70 60.
Copyright 2004 The Environment Agency
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The intellectual property in the above article is the property of The Environment Agency and is reproduced in accordance with The Environment Agency’s Notice and Rights of Obligation, a full copy of which may be viewed online at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/other/help/196644/?version=1&lang=_e
