Again I headed to the River Ayr to try for a grayling this afternoon. Once again I was beaten by dirty water when the river should have been clean. I then received a phone call from W. Menzies at Cumnock informing me that the Netherton burn was running dirty. SEPA had been informed.
I headed straight there to confirm the situation and then called SEPA myself. SEPA’s duty officer was unable to attend due to another incident elsewhere but has logged ART’s displeasure at this repeat occurrence and they will investigate this tomorrow and report back. I was unable to make contact with anyone from ATH despite my best efforts.
I headed to Cumnock and noticed the Lugar upstream of the Glaisnock confluence was dirty too. The pollution source appears to have been somewhere on the Bellow Water downstream of Wellflat Bridge as it was clear there. It was dirty at Cronberry. I have my suspicions where this dirty water was coming from but couldn’t confirm this today due to other commitments that called me away. I aim to go back tomorrow to see how things progress. Again SEPA’s duty officer was informed of this pollution and he will investigate this too. I’ll update this post in due course.
I suggest anyone affected or concerned by the recent pollution incidents put their views in writing to SEPA, The Trust or the DSFB as a matter of urgency. The Board meets on Tuesday 14th Feb and it will be discussed at the meeting.
I am glad to see that the Ayrshire Rivers Trust has been monitoring these recent pollution incidents on the River Ayr and hopefully SEPA will take positive steps to ensure no further ‘accidental’ discharges from the open cast mines occur.
From my own simple observations as an member of Annbank AC the River Ayr water quality has deteriorated in the last 10 to 15 years. Spates appear to take longer to clear and with increased amounts of fine silt suspended in the water. The large amount of silt in the river is easily seen, even when the river has fallen back. Wading in the river often disturbs vast clouds of silt, which cannot be healthy for salmonids.
The Trust’s recent work on salmon egg survival and the comparatively poor salmon fry numbers in the river must be worrying to anglers and anyone who is concerned with the well-being of the river.
I will be writing to both SEPA and the DSFB to raise my concerns about the latest and continued discharges from open cast sites situated in the headwaters of the River Ayr.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to the blog posts on pollution. I’m pleased to hear that you will be writing to the various organisations to complain as I believe this is the only way we can hope to see improvements. The more people that write, the stronger the case.
SB