Millions of litres of raw sewage leaked into the Firth of Forth this week in yet another episode of seemly environmental apathy in the face of private business, by the Labour/Lib Dem Scottish coalition Government.

The leak comes just weeks after it was announced that the Scottish Government was considering an application for ship to ship oil transfers to take place in the Forth. Ship to ship oil transfers are notoriously risky and spillage is common. The League called on the Scottish Environment Minister Ross Finnie MSP to consider carefully all risks involved and not to put private enterprise above environmental protection and the concerns of the local community. However, when it was revealed that the shipping company who had applied for permission to undertake the oil transfers in the Forth was the same one that had been responsible for a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 1995, some said that the Scottish Executive had to feign surprise.

This latest development has affirmed League fears that the Government would prefer to risk environmental damage in order to keep private business happy. Leith Links Residents' Association, near Seafield - the sewage processing plant responsible for the disaster - commented on Radio Scotland that the plant was a 'disaster waiting to happen' and that they used 'third world technology'. Seafield has been in the hands of private contractors for thirty years, who were also responsible for installing the treatment facility and is operated by Thames Water on behalf of Scottish Water. The consortium that runs Seafild were fined in 2001 after three other sewage leaks from its East Calder sewage treatment plant. Questions have also arisen about the lack of back up equipment needed in case of such a leak.

The flow of sewage has now been stopped after flowing for the whole of the weekend since last Friday and the public has been warned not to go swimming or harvest fish or shell fish from the Forth. Calls for an immediate investigation are sadly too late in what could become one of Scotland's worst environmental disasters.

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

26/04/07

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