Hundreds of fish die as storms cause pollution at Birmingham lake
The death of hundreds of fish in a Birmingham lake has been blamed on pollution following last week’s thunderstorms.
Dead fish were spotted floating on the surface of the lake at Brookvale Park in Stockland Green following heavy storms last Friday.
The Environment Agency believes the heavy rainfall caused drains to overflow, which then polluted the Rivers Trent, Tame and Anker in the West Midlands.
This water then flowed through to Brookvale Park, where the pollution removed oxygen from water and suffocated the fish.
Stuart Stanley, who lives in Alwynn Walk, in the grounds of Brookvale Park, said he first noticed something was wrong while walking his dog at the weekend.
“I was fishing at the lake on Saturday and there was no sign of any fish in distress,” said the 45-year-old. “But when I walked my dog in the park on Sunday morning I could see dead fish on the water. Its heartbreaking to see and the smell of fish is awful.”
The Environment Agency and Birmingham City Council staged a clean up operation to remove the dead fish from Brookvale Park and Witton Lakes, which interconnects with Brookvale lake.
Richard Lodge, the council’s head of parks, said Brookvale Park had “suffered more than most” due to last week’s storms and the spell of warm weather that followed.
“When you get a heavy downpour it washes a lot of it into our storm water drains that then run into brook courses, water courses, lakes and rivers,” he said.
“Brookvale Park lake has suffered more than most this year in that the oxygen depletion has been very significant.”
Mr Lodge added that the lake will be re-stocked with fish at the end of the summer and that park workers across Birmingham have been advised to report any sightings of distressed or dying fish.
An Environment Agency spokesman said though they could not be “absolutely certain” what caused the deaths it was some way connected to last week’s thunderstorms.
“The combination of hot weather and low water levels can make fish distressed and lead to death,” the spokesman said.
“In hot weather, fast growing freshwater algae increases its activity which can exhaust much of the dissolved oxygen in streams, ponds and lakes, depriving fish species of the oxygen they need to survive.”
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