SCRT Statement

Statement by Peter Evoy, South Cumbria Rivers Trust Director about a sediment incident on the River Kent

South Cumbria Rivers Trust (SCRT) have been working for the last five years on the removal of unnecessary obstacles in our rivers that disrupt the natural ecology of our catchments.

We have a project to remove Bowston weir, which spans the width of the River Kent SSSI/SAC, in South Cumbria.

We contracted Ebsford Environmental to carry out the removal, and despite reviewing potential risks in detail with the contractor, we were alerted to an incident late Monday afternoon regarding sediment release into the river. The contractors self-reported the incident to the Environment Agency (EA) the same day and EA officers started an investigation.

SCRT cannot be more disappointed about this incident, especially understanding the environmental impacts these types of incidents can have. We are putting additional measures in place and working even more closely with the contractors on site to ensure an incident like this is never repeated.  We will keep you informed of any updates and inform the public about the results of the investigation when it has been concluded where we will release another statement.

Removing river obstacles remains a critical part of restoring our rivers to good ecological health and enabling migratory species to pass up and down stream.