The River Wye used to be full of wild salmon. Today it is full of algae. And the meandering waterway which
has long attracted anglers, hikers and poets is now the subject of a major pollution lawsuit.
The case – against a British water company and two chicken producers, who all deny responsibi
lity – has been launched on behalf of almost 4,000 people who say their lives are being negatively affecte
d by river pollution. And while legal action brought ag
ainst river polluters is not new, there has never been a UK case with this many claimants.
A large range of people suing can add legitimacy to a court case, making it harder to ignore than one brought by a small group of activists.
The case is also what’s known as a “strategic” lawsuit. The claimants in the Wye litigation (which also includes the
Rivers Usk and Lugg), are suing not just to secure compensation fo
r losses they say they have suffered as a result of the pollution. They’re
also trying to draw attention to the plight of some of the UK’s most cher
ished waterways, and attempting to secure policy change to clean them up.
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Similar legal tactics have frequently – and successfully – been used by large groups in a bid to tackle clim
ate change, wh
ere strategic litigation has been brought against companies, notab
ly big oil firms, to help portray them as the ones responsible for damaging the climate. The Wye pollution case is si
milarly aimed in large part at big food companies rather than holding individual farmers responsible.
At the centre of the Wye case is “nutrient overload” of the chemicals nitrogen and phosphorus int
o river water from agriculture and sewage. This causes excessive gr
owth of algae, robbing the water of oxygen and killing off fish, plants and invertebrates.
Much of the nitrogen and phosphorus is said to come from the excrement of chickens farmed close to the Rive
r Wye, and the fertiliser made from it, which is used in other types of farming.
From a global climate change perspective, chicken, as a meat product, is a greener alternative t
o beef and lamb because of its much lower carbon footprint (chickens produce less methane than cows and sheep).
But campaigners argue that this ignores the local environment
al picture, where the concentration of the chicken industry and its nutrients i
n one area is a major problem. It has been claimed that around a quarter of the UK’s chickens are produced close to the Wye.