EA labels River Avon oil slick 'minor' as wildlife dies — SkimNews
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- Nicola Irvine, a Crews Hole resident, has struggled since July 2025 to get the Environment Agency to investigate oil-like substance bubbling up in Bristol's River Avon, describing the effort as 'pulling teeth' while her partner Toby White compared the smell to 'living on a petrol station'
- The EA initially dismissed the substance as surface run-off but reopened the investigation in May after Irvine sent photos of dead wildlife, and now points to contamination from former tar works that operated in the area from the mid-19th century to the 1980s
- The EA classified the incident as 'category three' — limited to where contamination enters the watercourse — despite Irvine reporting dead fish, ducks, and ducklings, and being prescribed migraine medication during summer heatwaves when the smell intensified
- A 2022 leaked internal EA report instructed staff to ignore category three and four pollution reports due to limited funding, a policy Irvine cited as she pushed for months to get the agency to act on her reports
- Local wildlife populations on that stretch of the Avon have visibly declined, with Irvine saying the river used to regularly host 30 to 40 ducks but now rarely sees more than a handful
- The EA is also investigating a separate incident at nearby Brislington Brook, where resident Dominic Linnell and other volunteers reported dead fish and eels, foam on the water and 'an intense chemical smell' stretching back more than two years; Wessex Water said it found 'no issues' with its assets, while Bristol City Council said it is supporting the EA investigation
Why it matters: A 2022 leaked EA memo told staff to ignore category three and four pollution reports due to limited funding — the same tier used to classify the River Avon contamination as having limited impact. That institutional policy directly explains why Irvine's months of documented dead wildlife and personal health complaints were first dismissed before the investigation reopened in May.
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