Fish Kill Averted After M6 Incident

Fish Kill Averted After M6 Incident

On Monday 12 March 2007 Environment Agency Officers helped to prevent amajor environmental incident on the M6 near Coventry.

Our officers were called out at approximately 4.30pm to assist with anincident on the M6 at Junction 2, where a lorry carrying a container ofglycerine sprung a leak. Glycerine is a sweet, syrupy alcohol that canbe produced artificially and has many uses in the food industry and evenin cosmetics.

We worked with Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service and Highways Agencyto make sure all the leaked glycerine was contained. The fire crewbrought along their Environmental Protection Unit funded by theEnvironment Agency and put out a boom to make sure none of the substancecould escape. We made sure all the glycerine was tankered away from themotorway and properly disposed of by contractors.

Mick Hyde, an Environment Agency Team Leader involved in the clean upoperation said; “We are really pleased that we managed to avert whatcould have been a large-scale environmental incident. Warwickshire FireService did their utmost to assist us in the operation and we would liketo thank them for all their help.

“Had the response to this incident not been so efficient, we could havebeen faced with the glycerine leaking into a nearby stream or river andmany fish could have been killed. This kind of a leak could have had abig impact on the local environment and caused problems for manymonths.”