Report by Duncan Williams for Pulman's Weekly News
An investigation has been launched after plastic bio-beads escaped from Honiton wastewater treatment works and entered the River Otter.
Peter Williams, of Otter River Catchment Action (Orca), and a colleague spotted rafts of the small plastic beads downstream from the treatment works while installing a water quality sensor on Tuesday, 8th September.
Mr Williams said the treatment works had also been discharging untreated sewage for 17 hours at the time.
The pair filmed the outflow before contacting the Environment Agency’s pollution hotline and sending the footage to the agency.
The Environment Agency subsequently confirmed that the material was used bio-beads. A duty officer told Orca that the agency was in contact with South West Water to establish where the material had come from.
The discharge was stopped and the site cleaned up “as far as is practicable”, while an Environment Agency officer attended the site to gather evidence and est…
