❤️River Mole news❤️our website now properly live please join us! The more members we have the louder our voice. Get latest news, invites to activities and AGM. Free to join but v grateful for donations to help with running costs. We are run by volunteers👍
‼️Worst we’ve seen so far at
#Horley
today! turds float into public area, sewage fungus on footpaths, whole LAKES of sewage in fields contaminated with algal blooms and Cyanobacteria from raw sewage .. next to housing. Direct locals from walking straight into streams of sewage 🤢
Here is the scandal of untreated sewage overtopping from storm tanks and flowing across paths to form pools of effluent in public open space used for recreation this happens every time the River Mole rises >2.5mASD at
#Horley
STW! EA this has impact and is a Cat 2 pollution!
‼️Our tests show stream outside
#Horley
sewage works where raw sewage pours out across public footpath has 1,078,847 CFU Ecoli this poses serious risk to public health and pets: footpath should be immediately closed‼️upstream there is 0 ecoli!
@thameswater
@Feargal_Sharkey
‼️Next explosive river scandal‼️our rivers are breeding grounds for antibiotic resistant bacteria: huge risk to future health. This video is 4 years old with 600 views.. it should have 60,000,000 views as far ahead of its time on this next huge water horror story 🤢🤮🤑🤧😷😵💫😵
Why does sewage in rivers matter? A clip from an article Leana put together at BBC London, where tests revealed antibiotic resistant bacteria in the Thames at Richmond & in the Serpentine. Full article 👉
‼️Storm tanks at
#Horley
STW overflowed during StormCiaran cascading raw sewage across road into public park and stream next to housing‼️health hazard and another scandalous pollution disaster
@thameswater
where’s clean up? Inches of shit remain near children’s play area.
‼️RIVER MOLE
#Surrey
POLLUTION incident tonight on Upper Mole‼️widespread FISH death on realigned section downstream from Man’s Brook. Many fish seen dead and struggling for 1km stretch. Dissolved O2 9%! Efforts to oxygenate stream w/ pumps running overnight ..
@Feargal_Sharkey
August River Mole River Watch test result are in! They are some of the worst results so far in our citizen science testing with the highest average phosphate level of 1.24ppm recorded for the whole catchment and more tributaries than ever scoring off-scale 2.5ppm. 1/9
Government is scrapping 2 key air quality regulations with no replacement and against expert advice so weakening environmental protection and making tracking or setting progress towards UK wide air pollution targets difficult.
Untreated sewage discharging for 57 hours so far into the River Mole:
#Leatherhead
,
#Earlswood
and
#Dorking
STWs started yesterday pm with rain + snow melt. L'head, Holmwood and Horley still discharging. At low flow the proportion of effluent is high so the river is polluted! ⚠️
The M25 crosses the River Mole three times and every tributary flows under a major road, most under the M23. Toxic runoff from roads is flushed into rivers with inadequate pollution controls causing a rush of heavy metals and hydrocarbons from tyre wear killing our rivers.
A toxic cocktail of heavy metals, hydrocarbons & chemicals is rushing off roads & into our rivers, lining riverbeds, poisoning water, killing fish - completely unmonitored & unregulated by the EA.
Our article in
@guardian
👇
River Mole has fallen to levels where the continuous flow of treated effluent from sewage works upstream appears on gauges: the ups and downs are not due to rainfall but daily "tides" of effluent peaking morning and evening reflecting the sanitary habits of population upstream.
Fish struggling for oxygen some floating lifeless. Most likely cause is diffuse toxic wash-off from 20mm heavy rain yesterday into VERY low flows so limiting dilution of pollutants but also…
most sobering tweet on UK flooding I’ve seen. Deniers should be melting into oblivion, the idiot “it’s weather” crowd should be utterly ashamed and so should
@RishiSunak
for heinous ill informed back tracking on
#netzero
..consigning young generation to face catastrophic impacts.
Absolutely immense amounts of water flowing at speed. through the farm and taking anything in its wake, including precious top soil, there is no amount of resilience I can build in to soils that will
Compensate for rain like this, I could cry.
@thameswater
You know about this location after we raised the issue on behalf of local people.. who are understandably anxious and are reporting some sickness plus pet illness ;their messages to us are heartbreaking .. you have known about this it’s been going on for years!
For some scale... the fountains of lava erupting from the 4km fissure in Reykjanes
#Iceland
are height of the North Downs seen from
#Reigate
>100m with runny lava rapidly flowing and filling rapidly into valleys. (rough pic!)
Max temps are not the whole
#heatwave
story. Forecast wet bulb temps are EXTREMELY high at times Sun-Tues. WBT above 32 °C is very uncomfortable for humans. Theoretically, humans cannot survive when WBT exceeds 35 °C. Check gfs charts!
#UN
live now :
#Lavrov
FFS stop lying! utter disinformation drivel and lies flow unhindered from his mouth like a river of shit.
#Ukraine
is NOT your country! RUSSIA is the aggressor RUSSIA invaded a sovereign nation and RUSSIA is responsible for the war!
@GMB
River Mole has had more than 200 raw sewage spills over the last year... so far through 2023 alone there have been 400 spills with total duration over 4500 hours.
"Let's be clear"
@KevinClimate
on
@BBCr4today
"net zero" allows wealthy parts of world to carry on emitting imposing impacts of climate change on poorest, most vulnerable people. Future generations will have to suck CO2 out of atms using unproven negative emissions tech.
Today BBC1 9pm "It's now become perfectly clear...that the Earth is in trouble" David Attenborough with climate scientists including
@MichaelEMann
and
@DrJamesHansen
Some streams nr
#Reigate
looking polluted with turbid red discolouration but it’s natural: groundwater is rising from mineral rich Greensand on Heath which discolours water as oxidises. May also leave what looks like oil on surface but this is natural salts. Good news this time!
I never imagined I’d actually be happy to do this 😁.. but here we are and it seems we are forced to try anything to make a corner of the world a better place for our children.
Flooding in River Mole catchment at
#Horley
after a *2 YEAR* return period rain event! Now let’s think about the impact of the 100 year storm or worse WHEN it happens! Climate change adaptation and slowing the flow needed urgently! Mill Lane
#Horley
closed with stuck cars.
⚠️Dangerous PFAS in the River Mole⚠️ No safe levels. Treatment works are not required to remove
#PFAS
Watch
@TheENDSReport
and
@WATERSHED_i
investigation which uncovers shocking toxic threat to human health from PFAS "forever chemicals"
Our fabulous River Mole River Watch volunteers were out testing the health of the river this weekend... it's coming up on a year since we started our regular testing across the whole catchment. Sincere thank you to all of our wonderful citizen scientists! ♥️
Radio 4:
@KevinClimate
"Nowhere near Paris commitments. Emissions rising. All continuing to fail. Imaginative accounting wrt to imported emissions, aviation, shipping. We are on 3-4C trajectory unless we rapidly bring down emissions"
@BBCr4today
A good moment to launch my blog on the River Mole! First post is a movie following the route downstream, so we know where it goes, our lovely local river with a challenging journey! blog: I'll post updates here
#Reigate
#Surrey
It’s an upsetting thing to see fish struggling and dying. Our group River Mole River Watch is working to make a difference. If you can help us please get in touch. It’s a bad night for the Upper Mole but let’s hope we can work to improve our lovely river back to health. End.
@DeborahMeaden
Absolutely👍… important to raise flood resilience from paltry 100 year flood and rainfall event to 1000 year 0.1% annual probability .. steer new developments above Flood Zone 2 and build SuDS to accommodate 1000 year events. Resilience necessary to keep people safe.
The military and the cops walk the streets, in the malls, in the subway , everywhere, stop men and hand them writs to war. My riend is crying in hysterics, because her husband is being taken away to war, and they have 2 small children. There is horror and panic everywhere.
Sadly this restoration is for a short 600m stretch only, sandwiched between rail, main road and suburbs.. all too soon it returns to an engineered course with toxic road runoff delivered intravenously through ditches and culverts. 3/4
Inspiring talk by
@paulpowlesland
on Rights of Rivers and river guardianship ..superb ideas to take forward for River Mole River Watch... Especially like walk river and map it.. something we were planning for our fantastic volunteers in tributary/ outfall surveys
@Resurgence_mag
River Mole River Watch joined up with West Vale Park RA to get something done about the woeful situation at
#Horley
STW. We pressured
@thameswater
inc media and political support to mitigate regular sewage flooding but there’s much more to do.
the Airmass arriving here on Friday has had an extraordinary 5000km journey over the Sahara Desert, starting from Libya a week ago, then into S Algeria and Mali; today it's leaving Africa but is carrying desert dust, visible today off Casablanca, forecast to reach UK by Thursday.
Incredible walk to remotest part of River Mole headwaters deep in Worth Forest. Discovered wild ancient prehistory, archaeology and wildlife paradise. All of it just clinging on despite endless threats. My guide was expert naturalist Dave Bangs author of Field Guide to the Weald.
@BBCr4today
@GretaThunberg
Svante Thunberg spoke so well about his daughter
@GretaThunberg
. Further widens the yawning gap between the inspiring stories of the real people involved in
#ClimateChange
activism and the ridiculous nonsense peddled by trolls, deniers and conspiracy theorists.
Another day yesterday assessing tornado damage on track thru farmland where trees had been characteristically shredded, twisted and debris lofted a distance. Very helpful farmers permitted access and interested in
#Reigate
#Horley
tornado! Report underway
@TorroUK
@Sarah_Hants
The plight of the River Mole
#Surrey
gaining well timed and much needed exposure as March the Mole walks kick off today and continue upstream next two Sundays in March. Join action to clean up our local river!
⚠️There's growing model support for a deluge across SE England Fri-Sat. Most of what you see on these maps falls during that time.
High chance of a wide swathe seeing at least 25 mm rainfall, locally up to 60 mm in far S/E.
Small chance of up to 100 mm in worst affected areas.
Solar &, in my view, E-bikes, are two technologies that can rightly be described as likely game-changers. They both offer opportunities for reshaping important facets of contemporary society in a way that EVs & large offshore turbines cannot (tho these still have a role to play).
Great news! Surfacing
#Reigate
Priory Park circuit path (west end) hopefully starts this Autumn courtesy
@SurreyCouncil
. This will hopefully sort the seasonal morass, reduce off-piste trampling and improve access and enjoyment of this beautiful walk
@ReigateUK
@yourtownreigate
#Reigate
Priory Park circuit path finished👍 thanks to
@SurreyCouncil
for great improvement over morass before, reduces trampling into woods, improves health and well being for more people to enjoy. finished path seems robust except at wet spot lower down but time will tell👍
Crazily gorgeous sun setting over
#Surrey
View looking out from
#Reigate
Edes Fields across the Mole Valley (of course!) to Leith Hill. Uplifting beauty on the doorstep.
As usual if SAFE to do so please share photos of flooded areas in the River Mole catchment today .. I’d be very grateful for location and time if possible any description too. Huge thanks.
Net-zero with a big NET: "“adaptation,” “resilience,” “geoengineering” and “carbon capture”: These words offer the soothing promise of action, but all fail to address the scale of the problem" quote Prof Michael Mann
@MichaelEMann
@KevinClimate
"...the promise of carbon capture and net zero emissions decades from now allows politicians to kick the can so far down the road you can barely see it."
-
@MichaelEMann
At
#COP26
, we need more than empty promises and delay tactics.
TODAY AGAIN fish die-offs in River Mole this time West Vale
#Horley
. Downstream of STW EDM discharging after Tstorm am. Fewer counted this time but that’s twice in a week fish are seen floating lifeless in our river and this is just visible damage at top of food web😩
Delighted that our River Mole River Watch group has been awarded a grant by Surrey Climate Commission who are helping groups across the county accelerate their excellent work for the environment. Thank you!
#SurreySustainabilityGrants
So sad and shocking for residents of
#Grindavik
❤️.. very happy family memories of world famous lobster soup at Cafe Bryggjan .. dearly hope the town survives and thrives in true resilient Icelandic style
#Iceland
#IcelandVolcano
‼️Look! we are now all witnesses to the catastrophic end-game of our wasted water industry..forced to record the stinking death throes of shamefully neglected infrastructure unfit for purpose unable to even protect people and wildlife from dangerous toxic waste.
@Feargal_Sharkey
January pollution results are in for River Mole. Thanks to our fantastic citizen scientists (pics of a few here!) who rigorously test whole catchment from source to Thames: monitoring pollution to hold polluters to account to improve river health for all.
Good mooc if you're interested in science of
#climatechange
extra-special as taught by THE
@MichaelEMann
. Imagine that, top climate scientist puts hours of teaching together just for you, for free! I found sections on climate models esp useful
@edXOnline
River Mole flowing across road west of Flanchford Bridge; cars driving through. Bridge itself is clear at though river brim up to bridge level. Level likely to stay high thru morning.
How does River Mole respond to rain? Tributaries rise and fall quickly. 10 streams deliver peak flows to the main channel at different times merging into one peak downstream. Rain total over hours is important to Upper Mole, total over 2 days is critical to flooding in Lower Mole
An extraordinary, emotional "last day", though we of course continue with children of key workers next week and provide learning online for our fantastic
@ReigateGrammar
pupils. Great speech from
@rgsheadmaster
"Our doors are closed, but our hearts are open".
I am sad for our pupils. In bad times we see the best of human nature. These are terrible times & yet the outpouring of compassion and commitment & care is overwhelming - it is an honour to be a Reigatian today. Parent, pupil, staff, friend, alum, Governor-community
#BeValiant
@campbellclaret
👍This stat👏if Londoners swapped car trips that could reasonably be walked or cycled, 60% would meet recommended 150mins of physical activity per week. Population would gain over 60,000yrs of healthy life every year delivering an economic health benefit of >£2 billion annually.
Fabulous halo round the sun earlier
#Reigate
with a mock sun. Faint rainbow formed by ice crystals in cirrostratus. Often herald bad weather but I think this is indicating bad weather in Channel later, prob not us.
Let's recall StJude Storm 28-29 Oct 2013: it had a wind field potentially similar to forecast
#StormCiaran
, an anomalously warm Atlantic, a very powerful jetstream...BUT
#StormCiaran
has forecast central pressure of 954mb compared to 976mb... and remember the impacts of StJude?
Mapped 15 significant trees with damage or blown down from Eunice in
#Reigate
Priory Park: shown in red on map. Photos of notable trees inc big oak snapped at west end of ridge, plus hornbeam and oak nr pond. Brings total to 100 big trees down since 2019. Wooded area 0.41 km².
This weekend, Britain may be about to have its worst traffic jam ever. Up to five hours of delay for 100,000 drivers or more.
Would you believe me if I told you the reason is because Britain's most hated motorway is too good?
Or that someone had a semi-secret plan to fix that🧵
Calm isn’t it! Centre “eye” of
#StormCiar
án now directly over Mole catchment
#Surrey
record low pressure 953mb .. winds spiralling round cyclone. Awesome atmospheric action!
DEFRA
@EnvAgency
good to see 2022 catchment data out now but Chemical status removed with no priority hazardous substances assessed. Public deserve to know chemical PFAS (fail) status! Why removed?
@Feargal_Sharkey
@Gary96631468611
@DianaBlackburne
@Feargal_Sharkey
spoken to local ex workers (era 70’s-80’s) v interesting finding out how STWs operated in past egSewage sludge from Dorking works was spread on lower slopes of Box Hill 😬more workers on site inc process chemist👍..now some have solo worker or none perm at all.☹️
@mariamposts
Spot on...London welcomed tens of billions ££ of Russian controlled assets. Over 20yrs Russia has cultivated corrupt elements of UK politics and been allowed to wangle deep into economies, shaping and destabilise democracies. Pay back time for opening doors to Russian subversion.