Spillage into Walsall canal 'All to common' - Waterways charity

Henriette Breukelaar, from the Canal and River Trust said the incident, on August 12, was one of three the charity had to deal with in that week alone.

About 4,000 litres (879 gallons) of sodium cyanide and other chemicals spilled into the Walsall canal in Darlaston Road, Pleck from the adjacent Anochrome Ltd premises, closing a 12-mile stretch of the waterway.

Walsall Council said aeration of the canal to deal with the problem had since been successful.

But Ms Breukelaar said the spillage was something which happens 'all too often'.

She said: "It was one of three pollution incidents we as a charity had to deal with in that same week alone.

"We very often find pollution in the water, not with cyanide, but with other chemicals, cooking oil, other types of oil, that we end up clearing up.

"The next step in this case is to see what the pollution level is like in all the sediment that lies at the bottom of the canal.

"Before we can allow anyone to use boats again, for example, we need to make sure that when they disturb the sediment, that doesn’t then cause a whole other pollution incident in it’s own right."

The incident caused thousands of fish to die, and Ms Breukelaar said the safety of the biodiversity in the water was also a concern.

She said: "A lot of the smaller organisms in particular are really sensitive to the chemicals that might be in that water," .

"Fish life, and mammals, we’ve got otters and have seen water voles – they depend on a really healthy canal ecosystem, and that ecosystem is massively disturbed."

A half-mile section of towpath and canal remains closed while the sediment is being sampled and an investigation into the chemical spillage is being carried out by the Environment Agency.