Scottish Water blunder let silt pollute rivers

SCOTTISH Water has been fined for polluting rivers with muddy water and silt, killing fish and damaging ecosystems.

The public utility hired contractors to drain the decommissioned Caaf Reservoir near Dalry, Ayrshire, and remove its dam.

But a valve was left open over a weekend, resulting in a high pressured release of filthy water downstream which polluted the Caaf Water and River Garnock.

An angler spotted the Garnock looking dark brown, despite little recent rainfall. He tracked upstream to the Caaf and found it running higher than expected. Water leaving the reservoir was ‘dirty brown, foul smelling and very gritty to touch’.

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, Scottish Water admitted causing or permitting a breach of environmental regulations in May 2015.

Tom Dysart, prosecuting, said the Caaf Water was polluted along its full four-mile length until it flowed into the River Garnock, which was also affected for a further four miles as far as Kilwinning.

Scottish Environment Protection Agency officers and ecologists noted that the Caaf river bed had been altered by fine sediment which smothered gravel beds.

Kilwinning and Dalry Angling Association gave evidence about the Caaf ’s salmon, trout and eels. The group described several dead fish stranded in deep silt.

Fining Scottish Water £7,500, Sheriff Mungo Bovey said: ‘In effect, the accused put the tap on and left it.’