7:00am Friday 4th December 2009
A WATCHDOG has launched an investigation after sewage from Southern Water’s Woolston treatments works spilled into the River Itchen for 24 hours.
The spill, on Tuesday, November 17, prompted the closure of Southampton Water’s shellfish beds over health fears and tests carried out on oysters six days later found high levels of E-coli.
The shellfish beds remain closed and further tests are being carried out today to confirm whether the E-coli levels had dropped in the past week.
The pollution incident has not been proved as the source of the E-Coli, but a spokesman for the Environment Agency (EA) said its investigation was continuing.
“When we visited the site, the sewage works had been restored to normal operation, but unfortunately, sewage had already been discharging from the site for the previous 24 hours, which meant we could do little to limit its impact,” he said.
“As part of the investigation into the incident, we conducted a full audit of the treatment works.
We will use these findings to inform our decision regarding appropriate enforcement action and to feed into future pollution reduction plans.”
Southampton Port Health Authority, under instruction from the Food Standards Agency, agency closed the shellfish beds.
It has potentially cost local fisherman, forced inshore during the stormy winter months, almost a fortnight of lost earnings.
The EA spokesman added: “We take this type of incident seriously and are determined to ensure that improvements are made to stop repeat incidents.”
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