A whistleblower today accused a pollution watchdog of abandoning some of Yorkshire's rivers and becks to their fate.

One of the Environment Agency's own officers revealed it had cut the routine testing of water samples for pollutants which can kill fish and other wildlife.

He also told The Press that testing of effluent discharges from dozens of private sewage treatment works had been halted, even though people were continuing to pay a fee for the service.

He said one example was a small housing development on Strensall Road, between York and Strensall, where discharges eventually worked their way into the River Foss via a drainage ditch.

He said sample testing there had been halted, despite samples having previously failed the tests on at least 50 per cent of occasions.

He also revealed that the agency was considering the introduction of "self-monitoring," under which private companies and individuals would carry out their own checks as to whether they were causing pollution.

"The profit motive will inevitably come before the protection of the environment if this happens," he claimed.

He also claimed the number of environmental pollution officers working in the York area had been reduced, and signs alongside rivers and streams, telling people how to contact the agency if they spot a possible pollution incident, had been disappearing.

"I am speaking out because I feel it's my duty to alert the public to what's going on," said the officer, who did not wish to be identified.

"Water quality has improved, but I'm concerned that these changes will reverse the improvements.

"Staff are very naffed off at what is happening. They are not doing the work that they used to do in the days of the National Rivers Authority, or the early days of the agency after it took over the job.

"The agency is effectively abandoning some of the rivers, streams and watercourses in this area to their fate. There are potential implications in future for thousands of anglers who fish in some of these waters."


Drastic' reduction in pollution levels

AN ENVIRONMENT Agency boss today sought to dismiss the whistleblower's concerns, claiming there had been "drastic" reductions in pollution in the region leading to big improvements in water quality.

Dales area manager Craig McGarvey confirmed that 20 locations out of 290 were no longer being sampled and tested, but claimed these "minor changes" were being made because water quality was improving year on year, leading to record numbers of salmon in the Ouse.

"With these improvements, we don't need to monitor rivers as frequently as we used to, and we have also had to change the way we monitor, looking more at the species living in the rivers instead of chemicals," he said.

"We will still take over 3,200 samples. We also carry out ecological monitoring which, combined with river sampling, provides sufficient data to monitor river water quality."

He confirmed that the agency had stopped sampling some discharges from small non water company sewage works, replacing it with inspections and audits, which it felt were much more effective than carrying out sampling once a year.

"The fees that consent holders pay contribute towards our monitoring of rivers and to the inspection and auditing of discharges," he said.

He confirmed that at the Strensall Road housing development, there had been sample failures last year, after which enforcement action had been taken against the housing developer who had then carried out work to improve its sewage treatment performance.

The works were now being inspected and operating satisfactorily, but if the performance deteriorated the agency would resume sampling. He said the number of environment officers based in York had only been temporarily been reduced because of factors such maternity leave and the same level of service was being provided.

He confirmed that the agency had been consulting nationally on a move towards companies carrying out "self monitoring, which he claimed would be a more flexible and rigorously monitored system.

He said that over the last three years, the agency had been putting up rather than removing safety warning signs, featuring an Incident Hotline 08708 506506 number, although many signs suffered regular vandalism.