Environment Agency know nowt

There's an article in the news today, a river has washed iron ore out of a disused mine, turning the whole river orange.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-26224867

I like this quote:

I'm not going to try to blame the EA for the river washing out an old mine, but how can they say its natural and not harmful?

There is a beck that comes out at Saltburn that runs orange/red for a similar reason. A few years ago the beck bust into another old mine, and turned the water orange. Before that happened, and I remember the beck as it was before, it was full of tiny fish. Now there are no fish in that bit. Lots of local independent groups are working hard to raise money and do research to find a way to sort it, because they all acknowledge the damage its done, so how can the agency responsible for environment issues possibly say its harmless.

 

Iron is a natural element, its in the ground in lots of places.
If you blame anyone its the people that owned the mine in the first place.

And, what the hell can anyone do about it at the moment???

 

As I said in my first post, I'm not blaming the EA for what's happened, I'm just pointing out that they are clearly incompetent if they think it is harmless. Yes its naturally abundant, but it isn't supposed to fill the water in such concentration, then it becomes harmful.

 

What has happened I assume, is that the heavy rains have filled up old mine workings which are now getting into the river.
Can you imagine the outcry, if the EA was now to say this it totally toxic and we cant do anything about it?

 

That's exactly what's happened.

The best they could have said would be something like this:

"It is harmless to humans and indeed everything else that doesn't have to live in it, but unfortunately it is harmful to aquatic life, as it will reduce the oxygen availability in the water and also while iron is an essential nutrient, it is unfortunately toxic in excess doses, so any creatures that are not dormant will suffer from this, but it is expected that it will clear up before most creatures dormancy breaks in spring".

Something close enough to the truth but slightly optimistic, as opposed to a blatant lie. The trouble with blatant lies is that there are plenty of people that will spot them. The truth with a large dose of optimism is much more palatable for most I think.

 

Oh well