Environment health teams seek information on water pollution crime

Environmental health officers have called for anyone with information to come forward about a crime which saw the water quality of a river drop after it was polluted.

On New Year's Day (January 1st 2011), the River Wey in Alton, Hampshire, was contaminated to the extent that more than 250 fish and thousands of invertebrates died.

The incident occurred on a 1.5-kilometre stretch of waterway and saw many wildlife species killed, including a 44-centimetre long brown trout.

Yesterday (January 19th), environmental crime officers handed out flyers in the area to ask locals if they had any information of the offence.

They have also been working with local businesses, utility companies and neighbourhood police to determine the cause of the pollution.

Environment management team leader James Liney said it has "devastated the ecology of an important stretch of river".

Earlier this month, farming business CK&D Muir Limited was fined £8,000 after Teesside Magistrates' Court found it guilty of reducing the water quality of Easington Beck in March 2009, killing a number of fish.

Posted by Joseph Hutton