‘Ecology of river suffering due to pollution’, says angler and campaigner

AN ANGLER and river campaigner from Sonning said he fears for the future of the River Pang after 750 sewage spills were recorded last year.

Data released by the Environment Agency showed that Thames Water was responsible for about 255 days worth of pollution in the chalk stream, which flows through Pangbourne and joins the River Thames between Whitchurch Lock and Whitchurch Bridge.

In 2023, there were 76 fewer spills to the River Pang according to the data.

Peter Devery from the Angling Trust, said the “whole ecology” of the river has declined and has seen the “disastrous” effect of pollution since about 2016.

He said: “At the bottom of the gravel is where all the magic takes place. On a chalk stream, the gravel should be bright and clear and that’s where all the bugs live and that’s where the fish also lay their eggs in spawning time so they need well-oxygenated water and clear gravel.

“What we have noticed is that we don’t have the great clouds of mayfly that we used to have. We used to have a two-week mayfly season and during that time you would see big clouds of mayfly beside the river.

“We now have a mayfly season that’s three days, five days or maybe a week at the very most and you don’t see those great big gatherings.

“You might see them once or twice but the numbers of flies is down which means the number of fish is down and we’ve noticed that in our tax returns in the fish.

“We return all the fish we catch and we’ve noticed that in the members’ catch returns, they have gone down each year over the last several years. The whole ecology of the river is suffering.

“You see fewer swallows and kingfishers going up and down. It’s generally a much quieter environment than it used to be and you see less life. The one thing we can’t fix as anglers is the water quality. There is very little we can do about that and we can see it getting worse and worse.”

Mr Devery sits on a monthly meeting with other campaign groups including the action group for the River Kennet and the Rivers Trust for the River Pang to talk about plans for the helping the river along with conservation and restoration projects.

He said the treated effluent standard for two of the main “problem” sewage treatment works in Compton and Hampstead Norreys for 2030 of 2.9mg per litre of phosphate is too high. Mr Devery said: “A really good standard for a headwater chalkstream should be 0.25mg per litre so it’s more than 11 times what the good standard should be and that’s in five years time.

“That’s another five years of really heavy pollution, badly treated effluent going into the river and we can see the disastrous affect that’s had since 2016.

“Another five years of that and it might be too late for the pang to recover. It might really damage it to the extent where it’s really hard to get back. The water colour should be clear but it’s grubby and dirty. You would be shocked if you had that water coming out of your dishwater. It looks terrible.”