River Trym causes a stink

The efforts of local environmental groups to clean up the River Trym and its tributaries received a setback when diesel spilt somewhere in north Bristol contaminated Hazel Brook, which flows through the Blaise Castle Estate, before joining the Trym.

Henbury resident Andrew Chugg was passing near to the Henbury Arms on Henbury Road where Hazel Brook often forms a ford.

“I smelled the diesel at the ford at about 9.50am on Saturday morning and it was gaggingly strong,” Andrew told Bristol24/7 about the events of the morning of Saturday, November 28.

Sea Mills dog walker, Siobhan Kennedy-Hall, was warned about it by locals aware she lets the dogs paddle and swim in the river. “I walked the entire length [on Sunday] to Blaise from the Avon,” she says. “The diesel smell was evident all the way along.”

The Trym itself flows through Westbury-on-Trym. Hazel Brook flows through Southmead before joining the Trym and flowing on into the Avon at Sea Mills.

By Saturday afternoon, residents in Trymside, Sea Mills, could smell the diesel from their gardens.

“Our house backs on to the Trym, about 50 yards on from the meadow,” says Simon Wright. “I went into the back garden and the smell was overpowering. I work in construction so I’m used to fuel oil and diesel smells. There must have been a substantial spillage upstream to make it that strong by us.”

Like many others, Simon worried about the effect of the spill on local wildlife and also on the honey bees he keeps in his garden.

Hazel Brook often forms a ford at Henbury Road. Photo by Andrew Chugg

Social media was soon buzzing about the spill and several local residents informed the Environment Agency, who acted quickly to contain it. The Environment Agency deployed booms to capture the oil. “Despite initial reports of dead fish, our officers have not found any so far and the quantity of oil in the water appears very dilute,” a spokesperson told Bristol24/7.

The Environment Agency has traced the source of the most recent pollution to a surface drain at a trading estate. They are currently seeking access to the probable cause to prevent further pollution.

Clarie Miles volunteers with Sustainable Southmead, a new group set up in February 2020 which is helping revitalise the river Trym. They clear fly tipping, litter and debris from the river and uproot invasive plants such as Himalayan balsam. While she naturally finds the spill disappointing, she remains optimistic and says reporting pollution quickly is key: the more people that report such incidents, the faster the Environment Agency deals with them.

Volunteers from the Sustainable Southmead group at a litter picking session, Clarie Miles far right. Photo supplied by Sustainable Southmead

“There are challenges to regenerating an urban river,” Clarie says. “I think in the city we have to recognise that people are going to drive cars on the road and there is going to be a level of vandalism and litter. Those are our challenges, and we need to be able to respond to them well and effectively. We need to be able to help the river to be healthy, to the point that it can recover.”

There is no doubt that the river is loved locally and Sustainable Southmead have been working in collaboration with other local organisations from areas beside the river, including most recently Sustainable Westbury-on-Trym and also Sea Mills and Coombe Dingle Together.

Volunteers from Sea Mills and Coombe Dingle Together removing Himalayan balsam from the river. Photo by Mary Milton

“Because we are on a river we are all connected,” Clarie says. It’s a true team effort which also benefits the wider community. Sustainable Westbury-on-Trym has supported Sustainable Southmead volunteers to do 15 days of litter picking, over the whole Southmead estate. Two hundred bags of litter plus other items were collected by over 50 volunteers. Litter picking can be done in small groups or by individuals so it’s been possible to do while maintaining social distance.

Sustainable Southmead is part of the Trout in the Trym project, inspired by a report on the river Trym and Hazel Brook by the Wild Trout Trust. Conducted in January 2019, the report was commissioned by Sustainable Westbury-on-Trym, the Friends of Badocks Wood and Friends of Blaise.

The report concluded that although both rivers showed evidence of “significant water quality problems originating from urban run-off, and household/industrial misconnections”, there was “no reason why the Trym couldn’t one day be a well-connected, well protected and biodiverse ecosystem with the habitats, plants and invertebrates required to support a self-sustaining wild trout population”.

The Trym River as it flows through Blaise Castle Estate. Photo by Mary Milton

The river already forms a wildlife corridor and is popular with local walkers, some of whom have been lucky enough to see a kingfisher flash blue across the river. Kestrels, eels, owls and minnows are also present, as well as more common urban wildlife. The Trout on the Trym project wants to take this further.

“If your river is able to sustain a healthy trout population it’s a really good indicator that it’s a really healthy river,” Clarie says.

Trout would be most suitable for the area at the Sea Mills end of the river, but the project isn’t necessarily about introducing them: it’s about improving the river to as high a standard as possible for everyone to enjoy.

Clarie knows from her day job as a mental health therapist how much the environment can affect our mental health: “We are very lucky to have rivers and green places running through our city, and for those spaces to be pleasant, beautiful, full of life and to be supporting a wide range of species. To be amazing places for wildlife but also for humans is very important.”

Spills and pollution can be reported to the Environment Agency on 0800 80 70 60. Fly tipping and litter issues can be reported via the Bristol City Council website.

Mary Milton is reporting on Sea Mills as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a pilot project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media

Main photo by Mary Milton

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