Anglers fear worst for fish after raw sewage leaks into river in Ripon

Anglers in Ripon are worried that three years’ work may have been flushed away following a sewage leak on the River Ure. 

The local fishing club, Ripon Piscatorial Association (RPA), has been implementing a three-year programme to restock the river with fish, but a cracked pipe at the end of December sent gallons of raw sewage into the Ure at Sharow, and the club says it may have jeopardised the project. 

Nathan Proctor, match secretary of the RPA, which owns about a mile of the southern river bank downstream of the ruptured pipe, said:

“Where this leak has happened is right where we’ve been putting fish in. Any fry that hatched out this last year will be struggling. 

“We put some roach in the week before Christmas, and we were due to put some barbel in this month. They’re not cheap. As a club we’ve had to spend a lot of money to make sure we keep our members, but if this has killed the fish, we can’t afford another three-year restocking programme. We won’t find out how serious it is until the summer, when water levels are lower.” 

Yorkshire Water said it had isolated the broken pipe, which lies five metres below ground, within 45 minutes of first being told of the problem on December 30, and that no sewage has been released from it since. 

The company has been transporting sewage from the pipe in tankers to Ripon Wastewater Treatment Works while it replaces the section of pipe, but both tanking and repairs at the site on Sharow Lane have been halted in recent days by flooding. 

James Thornborough, a retiree who lives nearby, said Yorkshire Water had failed to keep local residents and stakeholders notified of the dangers or developments arising from the incident. 

Mr Thornborough, who was formerly world head of crisis and emergency management for oil companies including BP and Petronas, said:

“This is a textbook example of how not to respond to an emergency.

“I would grade this as a Category 2 incident according to the Environment Agency’s rating system – meaning it’s significant – and yet there’s been no joined-up response. There’s been no information shared.” 

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said:

“We have informed the Environment Agency of the situation, as required by law, but there is no mechanism in place for informing anyone else. That said, we will be in touch with the RPA. 

“If there was major pollution we would of course be in contact with them anyway, but this was minor, and the impact minimal.” 

Repair work on the pipe was expected before the weekend to last for a couple of weeks, but can now only resume once flood water levels have dropped enough to enable workers to access the site again. 

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