Bad week for Environment Agency as ‘chicken poo’ failure claim lands it in court

Wake up call: these demonstrators against chicken farm pollution, including Feargal Sharkey, made their point outside the hearing at Cardiff Crown Court.

Yes, this is another ‘rivers of shit’ story.

But it isn’t about privatised water companies, for a change.

Instead, it’s about the Environment Agency failing to do its job and regulate the amount of – literally – crap going into our rivers.

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This is the second blow for the Agency this week, after it was found to have been colluding with the Tory government on ways of hiding whether UK bathing spots were unsafe for swimmers.

Now we learn that representatives of the EA have been taken to court in Cardiff over their failure to stop the River Wye being polluted with unacceptable amounts of chicken excrement from farms along its length.

Here’s a Sky News report on it:

The BBC reported,

The charity River Action, who brought the case, says laws to keep waterways healthy have not been enforced.

The Wye last year had its status downgraded to “unfavourable”, and the rapid expansion of chicken farming in the catchment area was partly blamed.

The Environment Agency said anyone breaking the law could be prosecuted.

The Wye flows along the English-Welsh border and is home to otters, kingfishers and the endangered Atlantic salmon.

“We believe that the government and the Environment Agency have acted unlawfully by deliberately not enforcing the critical regulation that, had it been in force, would have prevented the contamination of the Wye catchment area,” Charles Watson, the chairman of River Action, told the BBC.

And here’s Feargal Sharkey:

This Writer has something of an interest in this issue as I live near the Wye. The case is ongoing, and I look forward to the result.


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