The pollution of the Erewash after Stanton recycling fire

Before I show you my pictures you should click  on Stanton Fire at a recycling plant   

This is the report from the BBC as told several days ago. The fire is still raging and the pollution in the Erewash seems to be getting worse. These photos were taken at Sandiacre Lock yesterday afternoon. They are shocking but what is even worse was that the environment agency bods wouldn't do anything about the fish that were dying. I asked if they would phone the angling club who fish this water to see if they could save them. His reply........... the fish are too small for them to bother about. So all of them will eventually have a horrible suffocating death!! The environment bods tried to oxygenate the water by mixing hydrogen  peroxide with the canal water, which increases the oxygen levels but they themselves admitted that as soon as they stop pumping, the oxygen levels will dramatically decrease. So......... Who is to blame. The fireman did what they had to do by dousing the fire with many gallons  of water, but why was there no boom stretched across the canal? The polluted water was being channelled into the natural water course which eventually seeped into the Erewash. The fire at the recycling center is still burning, and more water is being pumped onto it and, unless we have a substantial rainfall, will no doubt continue to burn for many more days to come. Two boats arriving at Langley, came up and through the polluted water at Stanton before the environment agency arrived and closed the canal. They said that the foam was as high as their gunwale when filling the lock. One boat is a hire boat which was due back at Napton by next Wednesday. They have no chance of leaving until after the weekend and that is only if the pollution can be contained. They are also Australians who need to catch a plane back to Aussie by next weekend. They are beginning to panic and I don't blame them!!! They stand no chance of getting back to their base.
 So I will leave you with these photos and show you how tragically this pollution has destroyed this part of the canal and it's environment.

Sandiacre Lock

The smell from this foam is awful

Trying to oxygenate the water. The blue drums contain the hydrogen peroxide.

To the left and 'up the Derby arm' hundreds of fish were trapped

Some of the pollution already present below Sandiacre lock

Hundreds of small fish were trapped along the dead end of the Derby canal

You can see how they were gasping for air.

Just some of the dead fish trapped by the boats moored at Sandiacre

This one had been pulled out and dumped on the side

Dead fish in the bywash

Towpath closure at Stanton