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This is my local river the Colne at Harefield are there any rivers in the Country this damaged.

Mark Swaby

Mark Swaby

Senior Member
This is a local section of the river Colne in West London (please look at the link) its basically turned into an open sewer this Winter. I have seem plenty of sewage sludge over the years but its never been this bad. I have Riverfly tested just below this filth for 4 years but have decided not to test there again The raw sewage feeds the invasive Floating Pennywort which every year blocks sections. The increased temp and nutrients help the stuff over Winter and then flourish. There is no Floating Pennywort above Maple Lodge Sewage treatment works. Gravel areas downstream are covered in sludge. In the next couple of months what surviving fish species will try to spawn in this filth and the eggs will not survive. Recent chemical tests show 269 chemicals in the river. I remember seeing a piece on the Trent complaining about 90 chemicals found in the river, Lucky Trent. One of the chemicals found in our river has never been allowed in the County. You name it and its flowing down the Colne. Its not the amounts its what all these chemicals in a Cocktail do to the environment. Add Signal Crayfish, over 1000 Cormorant in the valley and other issues I do not believe any river in our Country is as damaged. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1353745428657965.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Not sure I've ever seen sewage fungus that bad. It's moving with the flow like ranunculus. Shameful.
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This is 1/2 a mile below the STW. Our club controlled a section a couple of hundred yards downstream of here. The Floating pennywort goes bank to bank most of the year. After removal it quickly becomes blocked and unfishable again within months. I made the difficult decision as club Conservation Officer to stop removing the Pennywort there to act as a buffer between this filth and the river downstream. The Pennywort was so dense my hope was it would filter and block the muck. Even this time of the year there is a 1/2 mile channel blocked with pennywort.
 
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Mark Swaby said:
This is 1/2 a mile below the STW. Our club controlled a section a couple of hundred yards downstream of here. The Floating pennywort goes bank to bank most of the year. After removal it quickly becomes blocked and unfishable again within months. I made the difficult decision as club Conservation Officer to stop removing the Pennywort there to act as a buffer between this filth and the river downstream. The Pennywort was so dense my hope was it would filter and block the muck. Even this time of the year there is a 1/2 mile channel blocked with pennywort.
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That really does sound grim Mark.
 
FFS how on earth are they allowed to get away with it on so many rivers for so long?….oh yeah, nearly 14 yrs of Tory rule!
Imagine the power anglers could wield if we all refused to pay water bills en masse until the mess was sorted.
 
That’s a disgrace Mark,… such a shame,.. in fact, shameful to those whose shareholder profits have put a smile on their faces and bulged their bank accounts.
Some folk are all too ready to politicise such travesties,.. I well remember prior to privatisation the plane de-icer gel I was wiping off my line when fishing the Mole in winter ,… plus the detergent from Gatwick that you could smell across the Mole meadows before reaching a weir pool.
To those of us who are long enough in the tooth to remember the fish kills and pollution of old ,.. as well as the ‘green’ weirs that stopped and started the flows,… it’s just all a depressing continuation of the same old crap.
 
Mark Swaby said:
This is a local section of the river Colne in West London (please look at the link) its basically turned into an open sewer this Winter. I have seem plenty of sewage sludge over the years but its never been this bad. I have Riverfly tested just below this filth for 4 years but have decided not to test there again The raw sewage feeds the invasive Floating Pennywort which every year blocks sections. The increased temp and nutrients help the stuff over Winter and then flourish. There is no Floating Pennywort above Maple Lodge Sewage treatment works. Gravel areas downstream are covered in sludge. In the next couple of months what surviving fish species will try to spawn in this filth and the eggs will not survive. Recent chemical tests show 269 chemicals in the river. I remember seeing a piece on the Trent complaining about 90 chemicals found in the river, Lucky Trent. One of the chemicals found in our river has never been allowed in the County. You name it and its flowing down the Colne. Its not the amounts its what all these chemicals in a Cocktail do to the environment. Add Signal Crayfish, over 1000 Cormorant in the valley and other issues I do not believe any river in our Country is as damaged. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1353745428657965.
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Mark, if I were you I would be bringing this to the attention of everybody that you can think to. Especially local TV, local radio phone ins, local paper, local MP etc
 
Mark Swaby said:
This is a local section of the river Colne in West London (please look at the link) its basically turned into an open sewer this Winter. I have seem plenty of sewage sludge over the years but its never been this bad. I have Riverfly tested just below this filth for 4 years but have decided not to test there again The raw sewage feeds the invasive Floating Pennywort which every year blocks sections. The increased temp and nutrients help the stuff over Winter and then flourish. There is no Floating Pennywort above Maple Lodge Sewage treatment works. Gravel areas downstream are covered in sludge. In the next couple of months what surviving fish species will try to spawn in this filth and the eggs will not survive. Recent chemical tests show 269 chemicals in the river. I remember seeing a piece on the Trent complaining about 90 chemicals found in the river, Lucky Trent. One of the chemicals found in our river has never been allowed in the County. You name it and its flowing down the Colne. Its not the amounts its what all these chemicals in a Cocktail do to the environment. Add Signal Crayfish, over 1000 Cormorant in the valley and other issues I do not believe any river in our Country is as damaged. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1353745428657965.
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This won't open for me... what is it please?
 
An extra 6 million people living in our country and counting, over the past 10 years, which equates to a 10% population boost. Has to go somewhere.....
 
O
Jon Frisby said:
An extra 6 million people living in our country and counting, over the past 10 years, which equates to a 10% population boost. Has to go somewhere.....
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It's about 3.2m in the last 10 years, to get to a 10% increase you need to go back nearly 30 years.

We are an overcrowded island, but nothing excuses the water company scandal. It's nothing other than organised crime.
 
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