A pollution incident has occurred on the river at Crane Park, which has discoloured the water but remains without a determined cause.

The pollution was reported yesterday afternoon (August 3), by the south bank of the river, near the Butts Farm estate.

Twickenham-based environmental charity - Friends of River Crane (FORCE) -- reported a milky coloured plume at approximately 3pm which remained until 10pm.

It also stretched to other parts of the river, sparking fears that it could endanger wildlife.

This morning (August 4) the charity confirmed that the source was an outfall near Saxon Avenue on the south side of the river. They added that the source has now temporarily stopped.

But in a post on Facebook FORCE said:

“We have not had any feedback as yet and have no further information about its nature or cause. Sometimes it takes a while to work out what happened - and at other times it is impossible to find out.

“This incident illustrates the importance of early warnings from the community and we are very grateful for all your reports. 

“We have not received any reports of environmental damage caused by this pollution and we may have been lucky this time – but please call in any return of the plume or sightings of dead fish for example.”

A spokesperson from the Enviornmental Agency said: 

“We inspected the affected stretch of river this morning (Tuesday 4 August) and couldn’t see any sign of pollution or fish in distress. The water quality measures that were taken also appeared normal. Therefore, we believe this was a very short lived pollution incident for which we can’t find a source.

“If people see signs of pollution on watercourses, such as discoloured water or fish in distress, they can report it to our incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 and we will investigate.”