HERE WE GO AGAIN!
Once again this disgraceful environmental terrorist water company make the headlines for discharging raw sewage into controlled waters, this time several miles of The Stourbridge Canal. Though this canal is controlled between locks between The Bonded Warehouse towards the main town and Stourton, it descends into The Staffs and Worcester canal. There are fears that it may have reached that far.
After hearing early reports on social media about this, I went to investigate, knowing that birds are at serious risk of harm through botulism caused by human waste polluting their homes. Let’s be clear here, there is far more risk here than the overblown cyanide spill in the Walsall Canal which was a very localised incident generating overkill.
According to the CRT notices people should avoid the water and so should their animals. Of course, if you are a fish or a bird living along this stretch, that is impossible. There were already some reports of dead fish with the lowering of oxygen levels and high Ammonia levels in the polluted water.
At Bell’s Mill field, it was evident that this appears to be the epicentre of the turd quake with STW vehicles lined up in an excavated latrine construction.
All along the canal, and I went the full distance and down to the Staffs and Worcester as well, there were frantic orange clad vest “water” operatives looking useful holding monitors, taking samples and primed with nets- perhaps as a public pr exercise knowing they have seriously fucked up. I actually lost count of the vehicles parked at every bridge, including Adler and Allen- their go to clean up contractor.
I counted five pumps nearer Stourton, as well as jets aerating the water.
The froth from this was apparent at the first lock.
But this canal is now an unpalatable crappucchino for anything that lives in it, with raw sewage visible floating at surface level for all to see.
I spoke to officers from The Environment agency who confirmed it was being treated as a category 1 or 2 incident, I would say the former quite honestly given the scale of it, and I do hope that the crapsters from Coventry are done for this in court on top of what it must be costing them, sorry, us of course from the clean up operation ongoing. There should be no “environmental undertakings” bung to the CRT here to avoid prosecution, THEY MUST BE PROSECUTED INA COURT OF LAW, OTHERWISE WHAT IS THE POINT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS?
In the BBC article, top bloke The Reverend Paul Cawthorne, who I speak to fairly often about such matters said this.
“There is a clear pattern of under investment in maintaining effective infrastructure this is causing far more untreated sewage spills than should be happening.
“Instead of water company bosses taking big bonuses and prioritizing the needs of shareholders, I think they should pay more attention to the damage they are doing to our rivers and canals.”
He is absolutely correct in this regard, and the privatisation of this industry as I have said before is what is the problem. We have seen direct evidence of its continuing failure at Smethwick Hall Park, Redhouse Park and many others that have probably gone under the radar. I spoke top one local at Stourbridge who said the same thing had happened on this canal around 12 years ago, and it shows that despite the boasts, this “5 star” operator is shite and does not improve. As I investigated, it flogs off land once in the public ownership for massive profit, just to build yet more houses which are fed into their overburdened archaic structures.
We have also seen absolutely nothing from this Government in tackling this disgrace, indeed, the bent Friar Park Urban village is ongoing, and they have introduced nothing to put fear into water polluters like these with the status quo very much evident.
On top of this, the pr spin lies of STW will no doubt be evident, I suppose they will blame the public for wet wipes, and their useless “rangers” will be out trying to convince people how much they care about the environment they have again shat upon. Liv Garfield may have left the scene, but this bloated bonus chomping fat cat has left behind a company that believes its own hype, blind to the industrial scale environmental damage it does with human waste it cannot control.
