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River Kennet to be repopulated following pollution





They are taking part in an experiment aimed at speeding up the waterway’s natural recovery from a devastating pollution incident this summer.
The pollution was first discovered on July 1 by volunteer riverfly monitors working for Action for the River Kennet (ARK).
ARK director Charlotte Hitchmough said: “The water had been a funny colour for a long time, caused by an algal bloom, and we were watching it carefully as it was a cause for concern.
“Then suddenly the water went clear. At first we were very pleased. But then we tested the water and found that all the invertebrates – the bugs that the fish and birds eat – had disappeared.”
Investigations by the Environment Agency revealed the culprit was a lethal insecticide identified as chlorpyrifos.
As little as a few teaspoonsful are thought to have entered the watercourse from a water treatment works in Marlborough, Wiltshire, leading to a 15km stretch of water down to Hungerford being affected.
The River Kennet is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and one of England’s finest chalkstreams. The incident is one of the largest ever and wiped out insect life – a major source of food for fish and other wildlife – in around a third of the river.
Hungerford Fishery water keeper Robert Starr said that, although fish stocks remain untouched, there is now little left for them or other wildlife to eat.
From September 18, a team from ARK and Savernake Flyfishers will be working alongside scientists from University College London (UCL), to move mayfly, caddisfly and freshwater shrimps from healthy stretches of river to those where the riverfly have been killed.
Ms Hitchmough said: “This approach is experimental. Usually rivers are left to recover naturally, but this takes years. Working with UCL scientists we are moving invertebrates from healthy reaches to the damaged reaches and then measuring whether they recover faster than those where nature is left to take its course.
“It was volunteers who originally discovered the serious pollution, so it’s great that the same people are able to join in to do something to help the river’s recovery.”
She added: “Riverfly counts carried out by ARK volunteers in August already showed an increase in the invertebrate population since the pollution so, whilst realising that it will be a slow journey back to a healthy river, these first signs are encouraging.”



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