00:00So we're here on Walsall Canal, where we're obviously standing next to the canal
00:03which has just been reopened after the toxic chemical spill that included
00:08sodium cyanide, which obviously killed a lot of fish, led to the canal closure.
00:11We're down here with the Canal and River Trust and the different
00:16organisations that all took part in the reopening, the massive operation that it
00:19was, that over 10 months to reopen the canal to try and ease off the toxic spill
00:25and to make sure the wildlife is okay. So the canal has just been officially
00:28reopened the official ribbon cutting by the Canal and River Trust. They said there's
00:32still a bit more work to be done. They were talking a little bit about the
00:35initial impact. We talked to the environmental scientists about what they
00:39saw when the canal first, when they first came down to the canal. They said
00:42obviously they instantly knew it was a very big operation, so instant closure,
00:46instant work between multi-organisations. But yeah, we're down here. They're
00:50currently sending one of the barges down there to officially open it after the
00:53ribbon cutting. So yeah, let's have a look at how this goes.
00:56We're down here to celebrate the reopening of this stretch of canal after it has been
01:02closed for 10 months. So it's a big event.
01:05Absolutely. Fantastic. It's a brilliant nice reopening. Obviously the canal means
01:09a lot to the Warsaw residents. And you know, the Black Country as a whole, I mean,
01:13the whole place is covered in canals. So the canals mean a lot to the residents.
01:17I mean, when it comes down to the operation, we're obviously speaking to some of the environmental
01:23scientists as well. But when it comes down to the operation, I mean, how much of a big
01:25thing was it to sort this, to do this?
01:28Oh, it's massive. We deal with a lot of pollution incidents, unfortunately.
01:35But the scale and the severity of this incident was really, really significant. And we are a charity
01:42with really limited resources. We rely heavily on volunteers. And it just so happens that this
01:48reopening happens during volunteer week. And we could not have done it without our volunteers.
01:53But we've had to redirect all our resources in the first instance to contain the contamination,
02:00because cyanide is such a serious and dangerous matter, of course, that we had to close off the
02:08canal to prevent the contamination spreading to other canals in other parts of the region.
02:13We did that with volunteers. We then had to make sure that we closed the towpaths and
02:19prevented people from coming on them. Because in the first instance, cyanide levels were so high
02:24that they could pose a danger to public health. Thankfully, with testing, we then found we could
02:31reduce the closure to only about a kilometre or so. And then we could reopen the towpath once the cyanide
02:39had degraded to the point. It wasn't a public danger anymore. But it was still really dangerous for
02:45wildlife and fish in particular. So yeah, it's taken 10 months to get to this point. And for the last
02:53week and a half or so, we've relied really heavily on volunteers again to get this stretch ready for
02:59boats. And unfortunately, some people do dump waste and shopping trolleys and the like in the canal. And if
03:07you watch this, don't do that. Because it's our volunteers and our staff who have to go out in
03:13boats and fish it all out.
03:15Yeah, so I got the initial report from an out of hours call about quite a significant amount of dead
03:20fish on the canal at Reservoir Place. So I was out the following day, my work day on the Monday,
03:27and basically, I could see a grey-white substance coming into the canal at the time.
03:32But usually, that type of colour usually indicates like a foul water mist connection. So maybe sewage
03:38getting into a surface water sewer. But I couldn't smell anything, which was very strange. And there
03:44was a few people observing from the bridge. So I walked quite a significant length and saw lots of
03:49dead fish. So it was my sort of role then to trigger it to the Environment Agency and the Seven Trent. But
03:55at that moment, we couldn't tell what it exactly was. It was deemed quite low risk at first,
04:00but then we saw the amount of fish that there was. We knew we was dealing with something quite
04:04serious. So that led to later on in the day, getting a confirmed call from the EA that a company
04:09had admitted liability for four and a half thousand litres of zinc and sodium cyanide going into the
04:16canal. Yeah, so we definitely saw an impact on some of the plant community. So on the aquatic fringe
04:22habitat that we call it. In terms of like mammals, because we do have otters used in this section here,
04:27fortunately we haven't seen any impacts on those protected species. But there's only so much
04:33monitoring and routine testing that we can do. But I guess the main receptor for us really was the
04:39amount of fish. But again, fish then get predated on. So there's always a risk of transfer. But we
04:47worked quite closely with the UK Health Security Agency and the Environment Agency to get the best
04:52advice and try and understand what those impacts would be. But I mean, I think the most important
04:57thing from all of this is that we contained it to such a small area. If it would have spread further
05:02along, then maybe those other really important species could have been impacted, I think.
05:06So sort of like just from the Environment Science point of view, when the call came in about what the
05:12chemical was and the potential impact, I mean, was it like an instant, instantly straight on?
05:17Oh, I mean, I knew straight away, once I got the phone call from the Environment Agency on the same
05:20day, I mean, it was quite a few hours after I initially visited, when I heard zinc cyanide and
05:26sodium cyanide, I knew straight away that this is going to be a serious incident. And basically from
05:31that call, I was basically drafting my rationale of why I would classify this as a major incident,
05:36given the nature of the chemicals that are involved. And the fact that although we're at,
05:41we're on the Wolverhampton level here, this water eventually does spread to the Birmingham level.
05:46So the risk is even greater because of the amount of people, obviously. So
05:50for me, straight away, I knew, and then seeing the volume of fish that were killed,
05:54the colour of the canal was like, I've never seen before. So I knew this was going to be a unique,
06:00a unique series, and the EA confirmed that with the volume of chemicals that went in. So
06:05it was tragic, really. And someone who lives locally, I use this canal regularly outside of work.
06:11So it was just heartbreaking, but we had to respond as fast as we could, really.
06:16Not really.
06:22We'll be doing well.
06:30All right.
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