Great News For The River Irwell
Earlier this year we were informed that United Utilities are going to be spending £450million plus between 2021 and 2025 on improvements to the waste water network and Cheshire…. This on its own was great news – as money was being spent in Bolton to reduce the frequency and volumes of discharges of dirty water from CSOS… and on other rivers around the region where we fish, such as the Tame, Medlock and Irk.
I was informed yesterday – that an additional £86million is to be spent improving waste water treatment works at Ringley/Bolton …. money is being spent on massively reducing the amount of microbes in the sewage discharge which impacts on something called the “Biological Oxygen Demand” on the river downstream. There is also going to be a massive reduction in the amount of phosphate in the water discharged from the treatment works – this will have make a big impact on reducing that horrible grey/brown algae which clogs up the river bed and gravels each summer.
And there is going to be 4 times more storm sewage tanking capacity at Ringley – which will result in far less raw sewage discharges into the river during wet weather events.
All of these improvements require large scale capital spend at Bolton treatment works,
So these works combined with the other works that have previously been announced are going to have a massive effect on the River Irwell.
It is very important to point out that a lot of these works have come about because anglers and other river users are constantly phoning in incidents to the EA pollution hotlines….. we don’t always get the replies we want or the instant action we want – but everything gets logged, and its added to the body of evidence needed to get major capital works approved.
Well done anglers — please keep moaning. Its good to have our voice/opinions heard and acted upon.
Please remember don’t report incidents on our facebook page until you have called it in on the EA pollution hotline 0800807060 first.
Time is the essence to get response teams out asap.
This is great news which will allow the river to recover even faster than it has over the last few decades. All we need now is the destruction of all weirs, better accessibility to the bank side and a full programme of giant hogweed eradication. Not too much to ask methinks.