{"id":742164,"date":"2026-08-18T19:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T19:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:34:09","slug":"pollution-fears-at-doe-hey-brook-explained-by-environment-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742164\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution fears at Doe Hey brook explained by Environment Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Pete Brabin reported what he believed was pollution to the Environment Agency after seeing the water turn thick brown at Doe Hey behind the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/9566439.man-found-in-brook-had-spent-christmas-with-his-family\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Royal Bolton Hospital<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But the agency has now explained why the water changed appearance, saying there was no evidence of a significant pollution risk or threat to wildlife.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Brabin, who regularly litter-picks in the area, said he was particularly concerned because the brook had very little water flowing through it.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: &#8220;It&#8217;s just destroyed everything, and I can&#8217;t believe the agency&#8217;s seen that; I&#8217;m wondering if they&#8217;ve been out and looked.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Brabin said he had seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/26467613.elmore-grove-bolton-backstreets-like-dumping-ground\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">similar incidents before<\/a> and believed the lack of rainfall had made the situation more concerning.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He added: &#8220;But releasing it when there was no rainfall for weeks and weeks, it&#8217;s absolutely stupid.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The brook where concerns were reported to the Environment Agency. (Image: Pete Brabin)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It&#8217;s just destroyed everything.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Brabin said he was worried about the effect the water could have on the wildlife using the brook.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: &#8220;Everything in that stream would have been destroyed with that pollution.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;You know, all the small fish, anything that&#8217;s in it, bugs and everything that feeds everything else &#8211; the food chain in it, would be destroyed.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He also said animals including deer and foxes were regularly seen around the area and could drink from the water.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Brabin said he checked the area regularly while carrying out litter picking and had previously reported similar concerns.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said the brook would normally have enough flow for material to be washed away, but the dry conditions meant the brown water remained visible.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He added: &#8220;It was just trickling down there, all brown, thick brown stuff.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/19516431.environment-agency-prosecutes-recycling-firm-bosses-council-left-massive-clean-up-costs\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Environment Agency<\/a> confirmed officers quickly investigated the report but found no evidence of significant pollution.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A spokesperson for the agency said: &#8220;Our officers quickly investigated the reports and found no evidence of a significant pollution risk or threat to the environment or local wildlife.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cFollowing a prolonged period of dry weather, rainfall can wash accumulated material into a watercourse, causing a temporary change in the water\u2019s appearance with low environmental impact.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cBased on our assessment, this is the most likely explanation for the change observed.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe will continue to monitor the situation and assess any further developments.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  More rainfall is expected this week following a string of heatwaves.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Brabin said he hoped people would report environmental concerns when they saw them.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: &#8220;The more people reporting these issues, the better the place would be.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It really would.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Brabin reported what he believed was pollution to the Environment Agency after seeing the water turn thick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-742164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}