Slurry inflicts another devastating blow
Posted by admin on July 1st, 2010 - Comments Off on Slurry inflicts another devastating blow
Another devastating blow for anglers came in the rivers above Omagh with an 8-mile stretch of river totally wiped of all life from gudgeon, stoneloach, roach trout to salmon at various stages of their lifecycle. An organic spill was noted by an angler in the upper reaches of the Owenreagh river on the Monday whilst there was heavy rain on. This was reported to the Loughs Agency who very quickly were able to find the source and take the statutory samples necessary to be able to proceed with a case. It was pure slurry that had drained into the river and whilst not being poisonous to fish it had the effect of actually suffocating them. This plume of pollutant continued on its devastating flow towards Omagh and the Drumragh river very slowly all the while being monitored very diligently by Loughs Agency staff, especially Seamus Cullinan and his local officers. They deployed oxygenation pumps to the river in several areas to try and stave off the effect of the pollutant but could only watch helplessly as the slurry killed everything in its path. This was a very hard thing for the anglers to have to take in: not being able to do anything but watch. However, as the pollutant reached the main Drumragh river it became more diluted and had less of an effect and fewer fish died as it moved towards Omagh. We are praying for more heavy rain to wash the system out.
Unfortunately, this was not a lone event and within two weeks there was another incident on the upper reaches of the Camowen river but thankfully it did not have the same effect. We must all be diligent in these times of low water as any spillages into the river can have a catastrophic outcome. The Drumragh has suffered this many times down the years: June 1985 saw a 6-mile stretch of river wiped of life due to slurry and again in June 1999 when the upper reaches of the Drumragh on the Seskinore side suffered a huge fish kill. And of course we also had the massive kill of over 800 adult salmon on the Strule back in August 2004, one of the worst for salmon on record.
Terry Smithson