WHO POISONED THE RIVER,AND WHAT IS THE POISON?

The continuing saga of the pollution of the River Crane becomes more difficult to believe as each day passes. As I may have mentioned this is the second time in as many years that this lovely little river,the haunt of kingfishers,water rats and heron has been poisoned to death!

Poisoned to death. That describes exactly what has been done,quite wilfully by local industry, these were no accidental spills they were the result of what these companies laughingly call “Damage limitation” ,a money saving exercise and what is entirely dreadful is the fact that the law allows this to happen. Oh ,it does not sanction such actions to be sure,what it does is to ensure that any fines levied upon companies which transgress are so ridiculously small that it is easy for those in charge to discharge what ever toxic matter they please ,whenever it is expedient for them to do so. This racket must cease!

When we hear that a company has discharge effluvium in to a clean river and wiped pout all the wild life we know there will be an enquires. If these companies are proved culpable they are fined,some times tens and occasionally hundreds of thousands of pounds,it seems to the lay man like a lot of money and they believe that justice has been served. Not so!

The whole pantomime is a sop, thrown to a concerned public in order that these despicable people may continue to do as they please. The large sum of money set aside two years ago by Heathrow to those who's care it is to restore life to the river,has not yet been turned over to them so that work can begin in earnest.

Now some might say that in light of this latest discharge that is as well,the truth is that while the Local Authority and various interested parties argue about what is to e done...nothing is done.

No steps taken to protect the river from such events...nothing.

Now here is a strange coincidence, in the late afternoon of the day before the spill I received a call from one of our members informing me that the river was unusually low. Since there has not been any unusually dry weather we assumed that for some reason the river had been dammed further upstream. Although it was still officially office hours if was also a Friday and so the P.O.E.T.S day rule was in force meaning of course that every one had left work early...as usual!

Next morning the river was in full spate again,which is odd in itself, it was in full spate and full of toxic waste. So bad was the contamination that people and animals were becoming ill after breathing in the fumes that were given off. I can vouch for the fact that it was awful stuff to breath.

The river turned black and by Sunday a seven mile stretch of the river was considered dangerous ,parks through which it ran were close I believe and by this time dead fish were to be seen everywhere.

At this moment we still do not know the nature of the poison as we are told that the area is too toxic at present. When I explain that this river runs though pretty housing estates full of children,it runs past school, also filled with children it is surprising that,in light of the severity of the incident these places have not been evacuated. The truth is that there are still many areas where there is no signage to warn unsuspecting residents that there is a problem.

On the First day of the spill my son was obliged to inform those in charge of the matter that the river ran within a few feet of a children’s play ground.....they had no idea that this was the case,I find that unacceptable.

There may well be a desire to underplay the seriousness of this matter and that s despicable when there are lives at risk.

The authorities should be protecting the environment and the people who live along the river rather that protecting the dubious reputations on those who have caused this mess.

Ten years ago Mogden Lane Sewerage Plant discharged thousands of gallons of effluent directly in to the Thames a mile or so from where I live. The site off twenty pound mirror carp floating dead amidst hundreds of other fish was dreadful. There are now almost no Eels left in the Thames due to this disaster.

Has anything been done to prevent such a disaster from happening again, no it has not.

It is well past time that Government sharpened up its Legislative Pitch fork and shoved it squarely in to the backsides of those who wilfully destroy so much and if they will not.

Well then, we should sharpen up our own act and kick the whole useless lot of them out of office,and the sooner the better.