Residents in Nantwich have launched a new “Clean The Weaver” campaign group after a series of pollution leaks into the river have killed thousands of fish.
Two major slurry spills have been recorded in the past week alone, which has been destructive for fish and wildlife along the river.
Shocked residents have seen hundreds of dead fish washed up along the edges of the river running through Nantwich in areas including Mill Island.
Now Josh Niblett, who lives on nearby Riverside, has launched the campaign group after being sick of seeing sewage pumped into the river.
Josh has carried out his own tests on the river close to him after spotting “very milky, contaminated water” flowing into it.
“Test strips taken from various locations show a high nitrate content which can come from various sources, but one will be sewage,” he said.
“The bigger issue here is that nationally our sewage system is inadequate and our water treatment works aren’t up to the load they have especially in Nantwich where our MP voted against spending a penny on updating them.”
Crewe and Nantwich MP Kieran Mullan confirmed he has been contacted by residents over the pollution of the river.
Dr Mullan said: “I think its great we have a campaign group passionate about the Weaver and I’d be happy to engage with them to see how we can work together productively.”
We revealed details of the first major slurry pollution incident a week ago.
What appears to be a second slurry pollution incident has left many more fish dead from toxic spills.
Josh’s new campaign group now has almost 200 people signed up.
“It is gaining a lot of local support with multiple members,” added Josh.
“We have had a tremendous amount of slurry pumped into the river resulting in untold fish death.
“This has been so distressing to the not only the fishing community but the general people.
“My daughter and I took a walk down there and having to explain why there are so many dead fish floating dead was heartbreaking.”
Stuart Mitton, of Nantwich Angling Society, has reported both slurry spills to the Environment Agency in the past week.
He believes the spills are coming from farms further up the river and has called for action.
He added: “It’s the same pollution – slurry. We have lost specimen chub, roach and bream.
“It’s truly devastating. The river is our jewel in the crown.”
Another resident Ian Whittaker said: “This is my local river, it’s normally beautiful calming and full of fish life.
“This is the second time in two weeks that there appears to have been a dump of some form of silage into the river. We’ve lost thousands of fish.
“How is this allowed to happen in this day and age?”
In 2022, there were 403 sewage dumps recorded in the River Weaver, and 16 sites were polluted by United Utilities.
These included 66 individual sewage dumps at Beam Bridge Pumping Station in Nantwich.
MP Dr Mullan added: “I understand why people will be concerned about the loss of wildlife. I have asked the Environment Agency to update me on the outcome of their investigations.
“It is right they have acted quickly but of course that doesn’t undo the damage done.
“We don’t know if this is slurry run off and the circumstances but the Environment Agency can issues fines when appropriate.
“Since April 2021 the EA have undertaken 4,815 inspections and requested 6,169 improvement actions on farms, with 2,791 having already been completed. They aim to perform more than 4,000 site inspections per year.”
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Following reports of a second fish kill on the River Weaver at Nantwich this week, we attended site yesterday evening to investigate.
“Our officers have attended again today to carry out more testing in the area and our investigations into the cause is ongoing.
“We thank the members of the public who reported this fish kill to us. Anyone who suspects pollution or other incidents in rivers and other waterways should contact the Environment Agency’s 24-hour incident hotline immediately: 0800 807060.”
Dr Mullan added: “More generally, this government has done more to tackle the difficult issues of storm overflows than any other government ever.
“You wouldn’t know that from what you read in the press. Sewage overflows are a Victorian infrastructure issue.
“Our sewage network is hundreds of years old and requires overflows to prevent sewage backing up into our homes when flooding and heavy rain occurs.
“To stop this overnight would require enormous amounts of money that would mean less money for the NHS or schools.
“As much as I think it should be a priority, I don’t think it overrides everything else we need to spend money on to fix it overnight.
“We only know about the scale of the problem because we required the monitoring of the outflows for the first time.
“Whilst Labour and the Lib Dems say they care, they did nothing about it when they were in government or ever campaigned on it before it was in the news even though it has always been a problem. They are just playing party politics.
“The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will require water companies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment – £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.
“If anyone says this is all caused by water companies being privatised, they will need to explain why the not for profit Welsh Water is one of the worst performers.”
(pics courtesy of Nantwich News readers)
Absolutely down to slurry, however having being witness to the events I can absolutely guarantee this wasn’t run off from fields. The amount coming through was highly concentrated and consistent for hours. Run off happens I don’t dispute that but this was a huge amount of concentrated slurry no question.
There is a big sewerage works at Aston which is upstream. But it seems unlikely this is sewerage to me. It’s runoff from slurry which all the farmers are currently spreading on the fields after the last silage cut. An unfortunate side effect of modern intensive dairy farming practices.
– Nantwich sewage works is downstream of Nantwich town centre. This wasn’t the reason for the latest incident.
– according to the website, Sewage overflows are only recorded and to have occurred upstream of Nantwich from Wrenbury sewage works which discharges into a tributary of the Weaver.
– Slurry and sewage are not the same.
It will be interesting to see who the culprit for the recent spills was following the EAs investigations. It might not be the water company who was to blame.