Further concerns are being raised about an ‘environmental disaster’, with criticisms of the government agency’s failed clean-up of spill from February being compounded by more pollution on the river this week
For the second time in just a few weeks, there are reports of a significant spill of oil or fuel into the River Wandle.
Further damage: oil floating down the River Wandle, as video’d by an angler yesterday
The Environment Agency has not yet concluded its investigation into the previous spillage, which was diesel fuel which they claim was traced back to a bus depot at Thornton Heath, two miles from where it entered the waters of one of London’s rare chalk streams.
Yesterday, video of oil or fuel floating on top of the water was posted on social media. The incident was filmed at Watermeads Nature Reserve in Mitcham, with the spillage coming down from Poulter Park.
Bobby Dean, the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, tweeted, “I am being made aware of another potentially large oil spill in the Wandle.” Dean said he is in contact with the Environment Agency, Thames Water and the South East Rivers Trust “to establish the scale and the cause”.
In February, Dean called the previous diesel spill “an environmental disaster”.
The latest pollution episode could be just as bad, if not worse.
An Inside Croydon reader told this website today, “Birds are still dying. Birds have been spasming in Ravensbury Park. There’s dead fish. Fish lying upside down, dead, in pools of frog spawn. Dead frogs, dead toads. It looks like they’re putting more diesel into the river system itself.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful what’s going on. Nobody’s listened.
A proper Pickle: some kind of discharge was seen on the river surface at Pickle Ditch at the weekend
“Everything’s dying down there, slowly.”
The reader says that the impact of the previous spill is still causing widespread harm to the wildlife that depend on the river, but that the Environment Agency has failed to act effectively to clean up the damage. They say that diesel remains in and around the river from the previous spill.
Booms placed on the river more than a month ago do not appear to have been cleaned or checked since the initial flurry of activity by the agencies responsible.
They say that a lake in the nature reserve at Watermeads has filled with diesel from the previous spill, which was backed-up and then flowed over the top of the EA’s booms.
Another iC reader, who lives by Wilderness Island, reports that the river there appears to be clear.
Inside Croydon contacted the Environment Agency for comment, but had received no response by the time of publication.
At the weekend, environmentalists reported another, different spillage, with white foam sighted on top of the river flow at Pickle Ditch, further up the river near Merton Abbey Mills.
These are among the latest incidents that has threatened to undermine long-term efforts to clean up the Wandle, from its status as an open sewer and channel for industrial effluent in the Victorian era and into the 20th century, and to transform it into a thriving eco-system by the early 21st Century.
Any sightings of birds on the Wandle covered in diesel should be reported to the Swan Sanctuary on 01932 240790 or the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999.
The Environment Agency can be called on their incident line for any sightings of build-up of diesel on the waterway by calling 0800 807060.
Read more: Groups join MP’s call for big fines for River Wandle polluters
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I see films of fuel oil on the stretch of the Wandle between the Wandle Park Tram Stop and the Purley Way on a regular basis. Assume this is road wash being directed by drains into the river.
Still don’t believe it is credible that the previous oil spill can be tracked back to the Thornton Heath Bus Garage with the distance it has to travel to reach the Wandle since if it is travelling this far there can be numerous sources of such pollution.
Whoever gets caught will probably get a tiny fine and suspended jail sentence because the justice system is a joke no one takes seriously here