River Mole, Gatwick Stream

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Nigel Rainton
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River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Nigel Rainton »

The BBC are reporting a major pollution incident and a big fish kill on the Gatwick Stream, a tributary of the River Mole.

The report is clearly written by a non-fisherman but the accompanying photo shows lots of dead fish, big fish.

The Gatwick Stream has been regularly polluted for 45 years, I used to fish it as a lad. The stream was diverted around the airport, the runways drain into it. Sad :-(

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Olly
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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Olly »

£30,000 fine for doing just that in 2004!

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Nigel Rainton
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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Nigel Rainton »

Olly,

Thanks, I was unaware of that. I Googled it.

Local people reported a strong smell of sewage during a flash flood. The sewage works are really close to the South Terminal culvert for the Gatwick Stream. It will be interesting to see if LGW or Southern Water are prosecuted.

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Olly
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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Olly »

A similar thing happened with Heathrow a few years back when their sewerage pumping system failed and all the untreated waste went into a Thames tributary killing everything up to the confluence! :hairpull:

Regular water quality details are found here for Heathrow :-
http://www.heathrow.com/file_source/Com ... _sheet.pdf

Perhaps Gatwick has a similar system?

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Reedling
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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Reedling »

This was shown on BBC South East today this evening (6.30), so many fish have died including large Barbel, Pike etc. They said locals said there was a smell of ammonia but the source of pollution has not been located yet.

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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Paul D »

Heard this yesterday, absolutely bloody disgusting, what's wrong with people? I'd like to think those responsible will get a huge fine but I doubt it......

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Olly
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Re: River Mole, Gatwick Stream

Post by Olly »

Pictures and EA conjecture now on BBC Regions Surrey with pictures and some fish sizes.

From the BBC - the EA say:-

""" Environment Agency

The Environment Agency said it did not think the river had been polluted deliberately

More than 750 fish have been found dead in the Gatwick Stream - a tributary of the River Mole.

A spike in ammonia levels was noted on Wednesday morning in a three-mile (4km) stretch of the river near Horley, the Environment Agency said.

Dave Webb, fisheries team leader at the agency, said the final number of fish killed could be more than 1,000.

He said someone could have accidentally put the chemical down the drain without realising the effect it would have.

"This is seen as being a very serious incident. It looks as if it's killed the majority of the fish population," Mr Webb added.

The Environment Agency said some very large "specimen" fish had been found dead in the river.

Mr Webb said the population of fish could recover "in a matter of months".

Larger fish recovered include a 13lb (6kg) barbel and "numerous" chubs weighing more than 5lb (2kg).

"These are fish that will take a long time to grow to that weight," Mr Webb said.

"We will be looking at restocking, but these are not fish you can just purchase off the shelf. These are fish that develop over many years in the river itself."

The Environment Agency said it is investigating the pollution, and is asking anyone with any information to contact them.

"We are following several leads," Mr Webb said. """

Seems very nonchalant about the deaths!!

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