Adams Pond cyanide pollution
Fish Legal represented the National Coal Board No. 5 Area Fishing Club following a 2018 spill of cyanide following a lorry unloading accident at Heanor Industrial Estate, Derbyshire. The emergency services attended but the highly toxic pollutant entered a drain and ran into nearby Adams Pond, causing a significant coarse fish kill. The pond is easily accessible and had been very popular with beginner anglers and children.
The effects of cyanide pollution are fortunately not normally long-lived, and a partial re-stocking (with Crucian, rather than common, carp) was undertaken by the Environment Agency within a year. By 2021, the lake was again fishing reasonably well.
The polluter, an industrial cleaning company, to its credit approached the club at a relatively early stage – prior to any prosecution, which had still not taken place by summer 2022 – with a view to providing appropriate compensation. Fish Legal settled the claim, via loss adjusters, for £20,000 in spring 2022.
The club will now use the funds both to improve the natural fish habitat within the pond, and potentially to create a reedbed or similar ‘buffer’ against any further pollution at the pond inlet.
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