A SPILL of farm slurry into an East Lancashire river turned it into a toxic open sewer that wiped out thousands of fish for miles downstream.

The Environment Agency calls it a "very serious pollution incident."

So it is. But is their response that serious?

For we are told it will take them a whole month to find out who is to blame

A month? Just how many farms are there in the part of the catchment area where this lethal muck was poured into Hyndburn Brook at Rishton?

If the Agency wants to foster public concern for our rivers, it should show that it is on the ball itself - by nabbing and slamming the culprit in court forthwith and not dawdling until public concern over this devastation is all water under the bridge.

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