North Oxford Canal

[monkeyhanger]

I travelled along this canal recently, and there is a section of nearly a mile , north of Stretton Stop, where the water colour changes from brown to black, and there is a distinct smell of sewage. I've reported it to Cart operatives. Does anyone know why the water is like it is?

[Tonka]

Still like it today

[magpie patrick]

It was like that on Thursday, I'm not a regular traveller on that length so I've no idea whether it's normal - it was bad enough I wouldn't have stopped on that length! Thankfully it was clear by Newbold where I did stop for the night

[JamesWoolcock]

Everyone, please don't just tell CRT people you may come across.

Telephone CRT main switchboard: 0303 040 4040 (Out of Hours (0)800 479 9947) or email: customer.services@canalrivertrust.org.uk

The call and the incident will be logged, forwarded to the relevant Waterways Office, and chased up until the matter is sorted.

It really does seem to work.

And other issues on the navigation that you can deal with yourself or cope with too, such as broken paddles, leaking structures and damaged equipment etc. Do the same.

 

"Don't just sort it, report it".

 

James

[john6767]

Not been hat way for a year or so but that does not sound normal. Would it not be an EA rather then CRT issue if it is pollution?

[JamesWoolcock]

Good question.

 

I keep their number too: 0800 807060, but I've only 'phoned them when I've seen a 'fish kill'. That's not one or two killed fish! Much worse.

 

James

[The Lockie]

Call 0800 807060 as suggested above.. Get it recorded as a pollution incident. Tell them how big an area it covers.. The EA will then decide if they need to send a team out to sample it.

 

If they do this and can trace it back to the source the perpetrators are likely to be taken to court and fined

[monkeyhanger]

Call 0800 807060 as suggested above.. Get it recorded as a pollution incident. Tell them how big an area it covers.. The EA will then decide if they need to send a team out to sample it.

 

If they do this and can trace it back to the source the perpetrators are likely to be taken to court and fined

I contacted EA yesterday. They will look into it.

[Athy]

The EA will then decide if they need to send a team out to sample it.

 

 

Ugh! I hope they give them a bottle of mouthwash to use afterwards.

[monkeyhanger]

Ugh! I hope they give them a bottle of mouthwash to use afterwards.

I realised when I wrote it that it might provoke some comments!

[ditchcrawler]

Not been hat way for a year or so but that does not sound normal. Would it not be an EA rather then CRT issue if it is pollution?

Agree

[dixi188]

Went through there twice to go up the Ashby and back last week. It was very smelly. I'm glad we were not there this week with the temperature above 30C.

[Locksprite]

 

"Don't just sort it, report it".

 

In the spring I noticed someone had dumped at least a dozen black plastic bin bags full of rubbish in my local river. I was nowhere near transport, couldn't have hauled more than two up the steep and slippery bank, but realised at the first sign of rain the river would rise, and the bags and their contents would be distributed for miles.

 

I rang CRT who said it wasn't their problem and to ring the department of the environment. I called the DOE who said it was a local council matter. The council wanted me to fill a detailed form in before being passed to a live person, and when I'd completed it - no small task - an automated response told me the website was experiencing difficulties and to try again later. I did, with the same reply whereupon I gave up. When I next looked one full bag remained and the rest had split and were empty.

[lydfordcastle]

Unlike the stink and the blackness of the water, this thread seems to have died away. I have noticed that the polluted length seems to have moved slightly west, starting just to the south of the M6 overbridge and finally disappearing near to Ansty golf club so I've given a fresh report to EA. The (very helpful) EA guy on the other end of the phone told me they had received another report yesterday and assured me that the matter would be investigated immediately. I hope so as it's no longer a pleasant experience on a boat in this area.

[matty40s]

Did anyone get any feedback on this from EA or CRT??

This section is awful, dead water. Along the whole section from Ansty to the motorway bridge .

[lydfordcastle]

Did anyone get any feedback on this from EA or CRT??

This section is awful, dead water. Along the whole section from Ansty to the motorway bridge .

 

Not a dicky bird. So much for the assurance from the EA that they would investigate immediately (4 August) and come back to me.

[GUMPY]

Reported it to the EA when we went through last Thursday 8th. Got callback in 5 minutes to say they were sending someone to investigate.

Callback 3 hrs later by the officer who went out they took samples results were oxegen levels were low but nothing else of note. They can't find the source of it.

My feeling is that it could have come from the railway and is the sort of stuff you might have expected a few years ago.

At that time going towards Braunston it was from just past Ansty to just before the M6 bridge

Edited September 17, 2016 by Loddon

[Dharl]

It was like that last summer as well! We passed that way in July 2015 and remember that stretch well for that reason. We call and reported it CRT at the time (well when moored up with phone signal later hat day) but don't remember getting more than an acknowledgment, but then as not a frequent calling in that area I didn't follow it up.

[Machpoint005]

It is possible that it's one of those issues which CRT knows about, but has had so many calls and emails about it that the staff are now spending their time finding a solution instead of tapping commuter keys to say "yes, we know".

 

I have no evidence for this.

[Athy]

I'd forgotten about this thread. I noticed the change in water colour when we went through a couple of weeks ago, after a passing boater said to me "The water's a funny colour here, isn't it?" Yes, it was, though I noticed little or no odour.

[Graham and Jo]

We came through there on the 7th September and it stank. Cheers Graham

[Jess--]

It stank yesterday as I came through

[Neil2]

I picked this thread up on a search, couldn't believe there was nothing else to be found on the net as we came through this stretch twice recently and it felt like navigating an open sewer.

 

Having read the posts it seems it's not a pollution issue, but for some reason there seems to be a pooling of stagnant water on the section of canal in question.

 

This bit of canal is sort of "bookended" by two narrow sections, and of course it is a very long pound all of which must contribute to the problem but why hasn't it been noticed before?

 

I wonder if it is a product of fewer moving boats, ie this part of the canal is prone to stagnating, and the water just doesn't get stirred up enough these days. Certainly most if not all of the hire boats from stretton stop seem to head south and we passed maybe one or two boats on both our journeys last month.

[adam1uk]

I tweeted CRT about it when we came through on 22 Sept. it appeared to me that there was lots of oil in the water. They said they were aware, and investigating it with the EA.

[Graham and Jo]

We came through yesterday and the water is a little darker than normal, but no smell and no scum. The wildlife is back on that section.

 

Cheers Graham