Still no answers almost a year on after pollution kills over 900 fish in Kings Dyke, Whittlesey

The incident has been described as a ‘category one incident’ – the most serious- by the Environment Agency (EA) and an investigation is continuing.

The investigation into the incident was criticised by North East Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay last week in which he accused the EA of lacking ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ after being informed by the organisation that no findings would be published before September, exactly a year on from incident.

Mr Barclay said: “We have the most serious level of pollution incident, a category one, and yet the EA that we will not tell the public in Whittlesey the cause of that for over a year. Even though I suspect the department probably knows internally whether or not Anglian Water was responsible for that and of a criminal investigation should follow.

“One chases as a constituency MP on behalf of constituents to give them some answers and yet organisation feel that they are unaccountable.”

According to the Environment Agency, Anglian Water’s nearby pumping station suffered a pump failure which resulted in sewage being discharged into the water for around 23 hours on Sunday September 22.

Anglian Water confirmed the pump failure but later stated that its storm overflow has worked as permitted on the day and this it had found evidence of an oil slick close to one of its outfalls and high levels of ammonia close to another.

The Environment Agency has confirmed the a criminal investigation is ongoing but that it can not specify any other details at this time.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “The Environment Agency is actively investigating a pollution incident at King’s Dyke (September 2024) with a view to taking appropriate enforcement action against the polluter. It is a complex case and will take some time to complete.

“As this is a criminal investigation, the Environment Agency is unable to share specific details of the case until enforcement action has been completed.”