G
Gary Knowles
Guest
Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at one of the regular meetings of the Staffordshire branch of the Barbel Society. During my talk I mentioned my disgust at the amount of sanitary towels that appear in the river Ribble after every flood. If it isn't bad enough having to remove them from your line when fishing in rising water, as the waters drop the surrounding trees resemble repulsively decorated Christmas trees. To be honest I'm totally p*ssed of that an area as beautiful as the Ribble valley is allowed to be degraded in this manner.
It was apparent that a number of anglers present shared my disgust and I began to think that something really should be done about the situation.
An angler at the meeting told me that he thinks what happens is that many sewage works still take water from storm drains (and he didn't believe that new systems can do that as sewage and storm water have to be separated). However most of our local drainage systems are Victorian. The run off from a heavy storm inundates the sewage works and to protect it the sewage, diluted by extra rainwater (remember this is a Victorian theory) runs over a weir straight into the river. Many systems now have storage tanks added which hold the extra water until it can be fed through the works at an acceptable pace.
Apparently one of the problems is that Ofwat will not allow the Water Companies to invest money into new or improved systems for fear that if the water rates go up the electorate will not vote again for the idiots who sold it off in the first place. To spend anything the water companies have to present to Ofwat a very strong case.
The angler who spoke to me thinks that one of the few ways that they can do this is to have the EA putting pressure on them. One of the ways that the EA can do that is for anglers to make a big fuss about the crap that is allowed into our rivers.
If we go to the EA web site you can e-mail them from there with your thoughts. Before I do this I wondered if anyone thought we should put together a united campaign or whether it would hold more credence if it came from a large number of individuals. Another option the angler I spoke to suggested, and it is something I have considered myself is contacting the ACA. Another way of gaining support and something I am considering is contacting some of the controlling clubs to try and gain further support.
Please remember this is an ANGLING and ENVIRONMENTAL issue, although I am principally concerned with the River Ribble the same could be happening on a river near you. So I would ask that any angler, regardless of his geographical location to support this cause.
I have contacted the EA for a comment but am awaitng their return call.
Any intelligent and constructive thoughts welcomed guys.
It was apparent that a number of anglers present shared my disgust and I began to think that something really should be done about the situation.
An angler at the meeting told me that he thinks what happens is that many sewage works still take water from storm drains (and he didn't believe that new systems can do that as sewage and storm water have to be separated). However most of our local drainage systems are Victorian. The run off from a heavy storm inundates the sewage works and to protect it the sewage, diluted by extra rainwater (remember this is a Victorian theory) runs over a weir straight into the river. Many systems now have storage tanks added which hold the extra water until it can be fed through the works at an acceptable pace.
Apparently one of the problems is that Ofwat will not allow the Water Companies to invest money into new or improved systems for fear that if the water rates go up the electorate will not vote again for the idiots who sold it off in the first place. To spend anything the water companies have to present to Ofwat a very strong case.
The angler who spoke to me thinks that one of the few ways that they can do this is to have the EA putting pressure on them. One of the ways that the EA can do that is for anglers to make a big fuss about the crap that is allowed into our rivers.
If we go to the EA web site you can e-mail them from there with your thoughts. Before I do this I wondered if anyone thought we should put together a united campaign or whether it would hold more credence if it came from a large number of individuals. Another option the angler I spoke to suggested, and it is something I have considered myself is contacting the ACA. Another way of gaining support and something I am considering is contacting some of the controlling clubs to try and gain further support.
Please remember this is an ANGLING and ENVIRONMENTAL issue, although I am principally concerned with the River Ribble the same could be happening on a river near you. So I would ask that any angler, regardless of his geographical location to support this cause.
I have contacted the EA for a comment but am awaitng their return call.
Any intelligent and constructive thoughts welcomed guys.