Harsh-weather salt is polluting our rivers

THE recent BBC Wales programme showing the whole length of the river Towy in Carmarthenshire was indeed excellent, the quality of the photography and the detailed information were outstanding to say the least, altogether it made me proud to be Carmarthenshire born.

The detail regards the lifetime of the fish and their demise over the last few decades, both the migratory and the resident trout was an eyeopener.

The local fishermen, showing genuine concern, were obviously sincere, and quite rightly so, there is no doubt that modern-day pollution is the main cause of this catastrophe that is more or less universal by today.

Obviously farmers are getting most of the blame, and possibly rightly so, then on reflection I thought, ‘what are the facts regarding the large tonnage of salt used today to keep our modern traffic moving during hard winter weather?’

The river does a stalwart job taking all the surplus water back to the sea, to be purified and replenished, before it comes around again as vital pure rainwater. I would imagine that the next rain will dissolve and wash most of the salt used, suspended in water back to the sea.

I am sure there are experts who can explain to me if this strong concentration of salt does any harm to the freshwater population of fish that live in our much-loved rivers, and of course all other wildlife that depends on having fresh water to live, this may well be irrelevant, but would we humans be happy if our tap water suddenly turned out to be extra salty?

It would be interesting if our council could estimate the amount of salt used on the roads in the locality of the river Towy; I am not blaming our councils for one minute, no way, they are only doing what the public demands of them.