The farcical investigation of the pollution case I exposed in a Devon river highlights how budget cuts own left the agency incapable of enforcement
It could scarcely own been a starker case. The river I came across in Devon six weeks ago,and described in the Guardian, was so polluted that I could smell it from 50 metres absent. Farm slurry pouring into the water, or from a pipe that I traced back to a dairy farm,had wiped out almost all the life in the stretch of River Culm I explored.
All that now grew on the riverbed were long, feathery growths of sewage fungus. An expert on freshwater pollution I consulted told me that the extent of these growths showed the poisoning of the river was “chronic and severe”.
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Source: theguardian.com