Mass fish deaths not caused by sewage says inquiry

The town council and angling club had to pull the dead fish from the water

An ongoing investigation into a "distressing" mass fish death in a nature reserve's lake has shown it was not caused by sewage.

Jubilee Lake, at Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, had dead fish float to the top of the water in September.

The town council - which said about 400 were found - has been working with the Environment Agency to work out what may have happened.

The town's mayor, councillor Pat Farrow, said: "There could be an element of detergent - at the very beginning, the lake was tinged blue."

Councillor Pat Farrow said it was a "devastating event"

'Devastating event'

In September, dead fish floated to the top of the lake and many smelly bin bags worth of them had to be taken away by the council.

The Environment Agency brought aerators to get more oxygen into the lake as that had dropped.

Ms Farrow said: "Obviously we were very shocked - it was quite a devastating event.

"We lost a lot of fish, earlier in the year, the angling club had restocked the lake so the loss was quite devastating for them.

"It was very distressing for people coming down the lake and finding fish floating at the top and the smell."

Jubilee Lake is a nature reserve and popular walking spot for people in the town

'Extensive investigations'

She told the BBC about what the Environment Agency had been testing.

Samples have been taken from tributaries and local businesses, as well as checks on the run of sewers and storm drains.

The agency has been eliminating causes and will be adding coloured dyes to tributaries and storm drains locally to see if anything runs into the lake that was not known about.

The agency told the BBC that roach, bream, pike, tench and carp were among the dead species and that "despite extensive investigations, have been unable to identify a cause to date".

"Our investigation is therefore on-going," the agency said.

The town council has been keeping the public informed on their social media pages and at the site itself