Swimmers jump out of dirty River Doon

Triathlon sports event is ditched over health fears

Massive pollution in a river has caused triathlon swimmers to ditch a major sporting event in Ayr.

Laboratory tests revealed the River Doon is choked with poisons posing a danger to swimmers.

Sports club Ayrodynamic have now dropped the well known Ayr Sprint Triathlon, which ran for many years at the mouth of the river.

The Triathlon club are running an alternative event in Irvine instead.

Club secretary Lyndsey Blair described it as a big disappointment.

She said: “The River Doon was a great location for the race and people liked it. It drew a large number of competitors. We ran it there for a large number of years.”

The triathlon was just voted the most “enjoyable” in Scotland two years ago and Lyndsey said it was well established in the competition calendar.

Ayrodynamic paid for samples of water from the river to be tested - and it showed signification levels of pollution.

Concerns about the state of the river have been voiced at Alloway and Doonfoot Community Council.

There were fears it could harm fish. Councillor Siobhian Brown contacted The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) about the concerns.

SEPA said it monitored the river quality but did not conduct bacterial testing for the purpose of public health or drinking water standards. It said the levels of bacteria are only measured for EU designated bathing waters such as Ayr South beach.

The Doon Estuary is not an EU Designated Bathing Water.

It said some bacterial monitoring of watercourses have taken place to check impact on the bathing water of Ayr South Beach.

SEPA also confirmed it checked discharges of treated sewage effluent on the Doon to assess compliance with rules.