Mine pollution threatens Scottish salmon, say anxious anglers

River Leven Angling Club chairman and vice chairman Stewart Grieve, left, and Brian McGlashan

Scottish authorities are investigating pollution in the River Leven in Fife. Anglers told the Courier newspaper that it’s killing off the salmon and could have wider implications for the local ecology.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency blames the orange colour of the river on an old coal mine at former Westfield site near Cardenden. Members of the River Leven Angling Club said pollution from former mine, which shut years ago, is getting worse since a Sepa investigation in 2011, according to the Chronicle newspaper.

A new power station, which is said to create energy from poultry litter, has been built on the same site. The anglers complain that five years ago they would catch 50 to 60 salmon, but now they get none.

The biomass power plant.

 

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