Lead pollution

On the way home from work last night, I was listening to the news on BBC radio 5, and the subject came up about laed pollution in rivers. Here we go again, I thought, but this was entirely different. The newscaster was talking about the floods that occured last year, and how the EA have been monitoring lead pollution levels in rivers etc since. It turns out, that due to the large quantity of disused lead mines in certain areas of the country, namely the Swale, Severn, and Wye valleys, the EA have detected abnormally high dosages of lead in the water tables.
This has occured when the rivers have flooded the mines and swept the effluent downstream.
They reported finding high quantities of lead polluted water, up to 50 miles downstream of such areas.
Have we been carrying the can for so long now, that it is generally accepted that anglers cause lead pollution to wildfowl etc?
Is there more than meets the eye as regards pollutants etc in our rivers.Could this be part of the reason, why so many of us find our rivers in decline.
I think these are very important questions that need answers.
What are your views on the subject, and can we do anything about these problems? Perhaps the ACA can help.
I'll open this to you all, and ask for your contributions please.
Paul

I've been saying for years (and on this forum) that we cannot possibly be dropping enough lead to cause all the problems we are (still) getting blamed for.

Paul could be onto something here. It certainly needs investigating. Has anyone else heard or read anything about this anywhere before?

Also, there is residue lead in the earth surrounding motorways etc. This has been laid down over 70 years due to the use of leaded petrol. This slowly seeps into the water table over years and years.

When it rains hard up here, the river Don suddenly throws up high levels of mercury...which was used 40 years ago in the paper industry...because the river bed gets stirred up.

I am sure this happens with all sorts of things like lead, heavy metals etc.

I have to agree with the above comment that this has been voiced for years. I've been saying it since not long after I first started fishing about 25 years ago. The amount of lead the average angler loses in a lifetime let alone a session cannot possibly account for so called lead poisoning. Think about it. How long has lead been used as a weight source for angling? Why have we not had major lead poisoning in wildfowl earlier in the last century? By that I mean pre 2nd world war. Maybe I'm putting 2 & 2 together and making 5 but it does seem that the prevalence of lead poisoning escaleted with affluence. With affluence came more pleasure boats etc. In other words, more pollution in the waterways. Would I be mistaken by thinking that lead poisoning in swans nearly always comes from navigable rivers?

Kevan

Kevan...up here we have had a recent outcry about lead poisoning on a local water. This river has never had boats on it..and never will. It has no major roads near by and does not pass any industrial areas whatsoever (River Ythan in Aberdeenshire). It is a game river and therefore has not be subjected to lead shot from anglers as it is fly or spin only.

The only source of lead shot available is from shooters..who have shot ducks in the estury for at least 80 years.

Guess who got the blame for the deaths...yep...we did!!!..bloody anglers!!

I don't know, these anglers eh. They dump lead in the water without even being there.....marvellous. It would be comical if it wasn't so crass.

Kevan

I was going to post the same thread last week when I hear the report on PM news programme R4. Events however, ran away with things and I never got round to it.

Some of you will remember that Midlands Radio BBC had a pop at us about a month ago, based on some iffy blood samples taken by one of the more extreme swan rescue sanctuaries. Coincidentally that sanctuary is base very near the lower reaches of the River Severn.

Now you don’t have to be genius to work out that if you have elevated lead levels through flooding and the flooding of lead mines, that you are going to find higher levels of lead in the blood of swans.

Very dodgey Science on the part of swan rescue sanctuary!
It would appear they forgot to include all the variables before opening their mouth!

The report I heard also quoted the EA as saying that, “Some of the flood pasture land may have to be close for grassing indefinitely.”

Perhaps the guys who made contact with Midlands presenter who ran the story, would like to point out this new "factual evidence."

I take the view that we should never let the B******s of the hook on issues like this.
It is remember, a tactic of the antis to blatantly lie and keep repeating that lie until it become accepted as fact in the minds of the general public.

these so called experts have to justify their own existance ...i.e if they sat on their butts
and found nothing who would give them money??? you can see self justification
all the time ....first we had volcanoes ..they got money for research then after a few
years people though who gives a toss, and the funding goes down now we have SUPER volcanoes
oooh everybody says looks a bit dangerous give money now...there was a fuss
about meteroites hitting earth,same deal... now super meteroites...more money
tidal waves old hat!! super tidal waves money money money .river polution can be stopped
instantly.....how...make a new law saying that anything discharged into a watercourse has to be CLEANER
than the water its ENTERING and make fines hurt! not hundreds of pounds... its cheaper to dump the
stuff than to clean it ! make it millions of pounds per offence minimum who cares if a few companies go broke
at least they can`t pollute. but you know it won`t happen most of the people in charge of these companies are
mp`s or ex mp`s or donaters to political parties, lords etc and anything that makes sense is the last thing
you`l here from ANY mp