Spotlight on Environment Agency - Summer

Summer is many things to the Environment Agency. Few of them good. Summer means less rain, so no chance of flooding and anything else going wrong, right?

The risk of flooding never goes away. Sudden, heavy rainfall onto baked dry earth causes flash flooding depending on how much rain comes down and where. But that’s not all that keeps the Environment Agency busy during summer.

Less rain brings its own problems. Coming off the back of recent heatwaves in England, drought announcements and hosepipe bans, that message has never carried more weight.

For the Environment Agency, less rain means less flow. Rivers become lethargic. Combined with extra sun and some nitrates, this can cause an explosion in underwater plant life and algae bloom, all hungry for dissolved oxygen. Leaving none for the resident fish. This summer alone we have responded to multiple incidents like this in Wiltshire and we are anticipating this to continue throughout the summer into September if the dry weather continues.

Dissolved oxygen crashes can happen in lakes as well as rivers, posing a risk to fisheries. 

Good fisheries may have their own tools at hand to help stimulate the water and encourage aeration. When we can we lean in to assist, bringing with us kit like hydrogen peroxide sprayers and flo-balls which look like giant versions of something you’d put into a washing machine to beat your clothes.

We have plenty of tips on preparing your fishery for summer in our blog.

If you are out walking along your favourite river this summer, and you see fish in distress, struggling to breathe, tell us. Our incident hotline is 0800 807060.