A toxic mix of oil, chemicals and bits of tyre from roads is polluting English waterways and no-one is regularly monitoring it, the BBC has found.
Heavy rain forces run-off into streams and rivers. Campaigners say it causes ‘absolutely horrific’ damage in places, including just downstream of where The Great British Bake Off is filmed.
England’s major road network has more than 18,000 outflows or drains.
National Highways runs the network and says it’s working to improve them.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A toxic mix of oil, chemicals and bits of tyre from roads is polluting English waterways and no-one is regularly monitoring it, the BBC has found.
Campaigners have been doing their own testing and told the BBC they had found micro-plastics, heavy metals, toxic chemicals like arsenic and carcinogenic compounds from car tyres.
“We don’t fully understand the impact these contaminants have as a cocktail but we know they can be toxic to aquatic life and potentially contribute to the poor ecological status of some rivers,” he said.
A chalk stream, the Lambourn’s crystal clear water winds through Welford Park, home of The Great British Bake Off’s white tent, before passing underneath the M4 motorway.
“Look at this black gunk,” Charlotte Hitchmough, the director of Action for the River Kennet (of which the Lambourn is a tributary) says as she scrapes a net along the bottom.
"It literally keeps me awake at night,"says Jo Bradley, a former Environment Agency employee who has now dedicated herself to raising awareness of road run-off.
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