Is the UK Environment Agency Toothless?

In an article posted on 5 October, 2015, Mr Monbiot reported that the River Culm in Devon, which flows through the Blackdown Hills in Devon and is supposed to be a wildlife haven, is so polluted that he could smell it from 50 metres away.

Monbiot wrote “When I reached the bank, I saw that it had been reduced to little more than a farm sewer. It stank of cow manure. The bed was covered in feathery growths of “sewage fungus” (the name is misleading: in reality these are bacterial colonies).” [Source: The Guardian]

Monbiot followed the river to seek out the cause of the pollution and this led him to a pipe that came from a dairy farm on a hill overlooking the river and which was discharging cow slurry into the river. He took many photos of this, and on following the flow of the slurry came upon a broken pipe that was discharging “a steady flow of stinking liquid manure” into a rivulet that eventually discharged into the river.

Monbiot apparently immediately contacted the Environment Agency to report the environmental destruction, and the inspectors apparently visited the farm three days later.  When Monbiot tried to interview the farmer later, he was told “I’m not discussing it with you. It’s none of your business.”

The Environment Agency said that they were taking the matter seriously as it is illegal to allow slurry flow out of a lagoon into a ditch, and a farm pipe may not be discharged into a river. Monbiot left the case in the capable hands of the Environment Agency, trusting that they would do the necessary to protect the environment and local residents, and then he received their report!

According to his next article on the matter, he was gravely disappointed and called the Environment Agency toothless. The report stated that “It had decided to take no action against the farmer, as “the long-term ecological impacts on the environment were fortunately low.”

If this is the attitude of the Environment Agency when they are presented with a report and clear photographic proof that there is an ecological and environmental crime taking place, are they really fulfilling their mandate to protect UK citizens and the environment or are they, as Monbiot avers, just a toothless dog?

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