Environment Agency area director Marc Lidderth talks to the Express & Star about the current situation at the toxic Walsall canal.

Express & Star

Environment Agency area director Marc Lidderth talks to the Express & Star about the current situation at the toxic Walsall canal, off Reservoir Place, Pleck, Walsall.

Transcript

00:00Okay, so we're here with Mark Liddeth at the Environment Agency, Area Director.

00:05So you mentioned that the chemical spills have now been limited to just a small stretch

00:11of the canal.

00:13So what kind of safeguarding are you putting in place to help protect residents and also

00:19wildlife?

00:20Yeah, so from the Environment Agency's sampling and testing programme, we've been able to

00:25confirm now that the chemicals are in about a kilometre stretch of the canal network.

00:30So as you said, the rest of that network is now reopened for the public to use, which

00:34is really good news.

00:35However, there is still that restriction of no access to the public within that kilometre

00:40stretch.

00:41Now what we are obviously now looking at through the partnership is through Public Health Walsall

00:47Council and also the UKHSA, that stretch of canal will remain closed for the time being

00:52because obviously there is still a risk to the public.

00:55From the Environment Agency's perspective, our focus now is making sure that the environment

00:59is protected as best it can and now identifying the concentration levels of those chemicals

01:04within the canal, which will then help us inform of what the next stage will be in terms

01:08of remediation to make sure the environment remains protected from this serious pollution

01:14incident.

01:15And are you able to give any sort of timeframe on that, when that stretch of the canal is

01:19likely to reopen?

01:22At the moment, it's too early to say in terms of how soon this part of the canal will reopen.

01:28What we are obviously urging is making sure the public keep up to date with the information

01:32coming out to stay away from this part of the canal.

01:36What the Environment Agency's sampling and testing programme will continue to do over

01:39the next course of a few days is to identify those concentration levels.

01:43That will then lead us to making informed decisions as a partnership through the LRF,

01:48looking at exactly what the decisions will be about public health safety, but also what

01:54the implications are for the aquatic life within the canal and the environment and wildlife

01:58that surrounds it.

02:00So in terms of the wildlife, so we saw a few days ago there were fish floating on top of

02:04the water, what measures are being put in place to sort of prevent the ongoing chain

02:11of that?

02:12So if the birds eat the fish and then the cats eat the birds, what measures are being

02:16put in place to safeguard the wildlife?

02:19So in terms of the wildlife and the wider impacts, yes, there's been a large number

02:23of dead fish from this serious pollution incident and what we will be looking at is there will

02:27be a collection of those dead fish to hopefully mitigate against birds taking them away as

02:33you've described there.

02:35What we can then utilise those fish for is actually helping us to identify the cause

02:39of the death, which will then point to if it was the pollution incident and those chemicals,

02:45that then all forms part of the evidence for us as well as our investigations actually

02:49on site from the operator that's caused this pollution, Anacron Limited, who have put their

02:55own statement out saying that they have caused this.

02:59Our investigation work with cooperation from the operator will then start to identify that

03:03cause and if we do find that there's been any wrongdoing or from the permit that the

03:08Environment Agency provides to that operator, if they've breached any of those permit conditions,

03:13we will then look at what robust enforcement action will take place against the operator.

03:19And speaking more generally, how often do you test waters and how can you reassure residents

03:25that something like this won't happen elsewhere in water in the region?

03:30So in terms of the incident here, the Environment Agency, as I've mentioned, has got that robust

03:35sampling and testing programme and will continue to do that over the days.

03:40In terms of the wider kind of water testing, the Environment Agency does that predominantly

03:45on rivers in terms of looking at the water quality side of things, but our focus here

03:50today is obviously getting those sampling completed further today, give us more laboratory

03:55analysis results that will help inform us then around how long this canal potentially

04:01may still stay closed, but also importantly what our next steps will be to continue to

04:05protect the environment as best we can.

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