River Witham - Major fish kill

[laguna]

Major pollution incident - high levels of ammonia found.
Area between Kirkstead Bridge and Bardney Bridge, near Woodhall Spa.

Reports of dead fish have also been received from the Boston area, some 20 miles (32 km) away.

Thousands of dead fish in River Witham in Lincolnshire - BBC News

 

[rich66]

Terrible I saw it on FB yesterday, I wonder if the culprits will be found and prosecuted.

 

[laguna]

Terrible I saw it on FB yesterday, I wonder if the culprits will be found and prosecuted.

I bloody hope so, especially if it deliberate.

 

[rich66]

I imagine it’s some moron dumping something either in the waterway, or nearby. I suppose it could even be fertiliser with it being Ammonia

 

[laguna]

[Update] They've found the source of ammonia but... they're not telling! River Witham: Dead fish pollution source identified - BBC News

Apparently it was accidental. Some speculating a tanker carrying liquid nitrogen had overturned and spilled its load. Nitrogen reacted with the water to produce Ammonia resulting in the fish kill. However this cannot be right, the chemistry is all wrong, so we'll just have to wait until until investigations are concluded before we find out the exact cause.

 

[rich66]

What else but accidental ! Hopefully they’ll get to the bottom of it. I wonder what else they could do apart from monitoring the ammonia levels, it’s going to take years for the river wildlife to repopulate

 

[flightliner]

Fortunately the Witham has several drains along its length where there are good stocks of fish, even possible that some fish found refuge in them.

 

[rich66]

Hopefully they did

 

[laguna]

What else but accidental ! Hopefully they’ll get to the bottom of it. I wonder what else they could do apart from monitoring the ammonia levels, it’s going to take years for the river wildlife to repopulate

Many years. Unfortunately, although fish tend to swim away from the source of pollution they would have to swim faster than the flow in order to survive - for many miles downstream. At least 20 miles in this particular case.

 

[browndog]

Notice the word "possible" in the report? Surely they mean inevitable ?

 

[thecrow]

Have the EA released a report? Its been over a week since they said they had identified the source of the pollution but I haven't seen anything about where/who it was.

 

[john step]

Not seen anything. Like everything else nowadays, it will take a long time....enough time for any anger to have diminished.

 

[laguna]

Is this your stretch of the Witham John?

 

[john step]

Is this your stretch of the Witham John?

Yes its the closest bigger river to me, about 17 miles. An absolute disaster.

 

[laguna]

Yes its the closest bigger river to me, about 17 miles. An absolute disaster.

Very sad indeed. I don't know how long it will take to recover but we have a trip organised for 2nd week September. We'll be staying at Tattersall lakes hoping to fish the Witham near by too.

 

[john step]

Very sad indeed. I don't know how long it will take to recover but we have a trip organised for 2nd week September. We'll be staying at Tattersall lakes hoping to fish the Witham near by too.

PM on way.

 

[flightliner]

I dont know how to do links but check out u tube "fishing on the river Witham" plenty of vids but one or two recant ones feuture the fish kill.
Lots of fish shown with commentary from the guy filming who says he found an ea bod taking samples who went on to tell him its definately ammonia thats the problem. He went on to say deaths occur at "1" on the scale but at the time it was at "Ten" on his meter.
Today I read somewhere, Angling times/mail maybe that its down to an overturned lorry.
The consensus is that it will take many years for the river to make a comeback but I,m more optimistic believing that the upper river and the many drains that run into the lower section from Bardney to Boston as well as the river Bain flowing in at Dogdyke will repopulate the river in a relatively short time providing the invertabrate life can regenerate sufficiantly fast enough.

 

[flightliner]

Five years before its fishable!
Thats my take on it. :fish2:

 

[rich66]

Latest news from the beeb on this
River Witham: Dead fish pollution source identified - BBC News

 

[laguna]

Latest news from the beeb on this
River Witham: Dead fish pollution source identified - BBC News

Same link as mine above from 10 days ago Rich. They're not saying much at all.