Pollution incident which killed thousands of fish in Corwnall down to lime
The Environment Agency were called to the White River in St Austell on Thursday.
The source of a pollution incident which killed thousands of fish in Cornwall has been identified as lime.
The Environment Agency were called to the White River in St Austell on Thursday.
Officers say the water quality has since stabilised and returned to normal neutral levels.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Our officers attended the White River on Thursday afternoon and evening to investigate after we received calls about dead fish on our 24 hr incident hotline. We identified a source of pollution and confirmed it had stopped by Thursday night.
“Steps are being taken at the source of the pollution to prevent any reoccurrence.
“Many hundreds, potentially thousands, of fish were killed in the river from St Austell to the coast at Pentewan including trout, eels and brook lamprey.
“The pollutant was lime in a liquid form which entered the White River, and we believe the pollutant caused the fish deaths.
“Once the affected water travelled down the watercourse and was flushed out to sea, the pH of the White River stabilised and returned to normal neutral levels.
“Water quality meters were used by Environment Agency Officers on to monitor water quality of the White River, suggested that water quality had completely returned to its normal range along the effected length of the White River by Friday morning.
“On reaching the sea the pollutant would have diluted and dispersed, through the volume of water and the tidal cycles. There is no longer term impact on the bathing water.
“Our officers returned to site first thing on Friday morning and completed a thorough investigation throughout the day. This included collecting a sample of the dead fish. This will be used as evidence for our regulatory action to bring those who pollute the environment to account.
“On Saturday our officers were on site monitoring the impact of the pollution on invertebrate communities in the river. This evidence is part of our continuing investigation.”