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.
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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.