May 17th – I see the canals are looking pretty messy again – not to worry though, as this pollution is entirely natural and harmless.
Lots of reed detritus and airborne blossom debris is combining, as it does at various times of the year, to form a heavy scum in wind traps on the surface of the water.
It’s harmless and will decay within a week or so, it’s perfectly natural.
February 9th – Sad to note that at the south end of Victoria Park in Darlaston, beyond the railway bridge, flytippers have been at work. What is normally an fairly clean marshy area beloved of birds and bugs, a quantity of tyres have been dumped, clearly thrown down the embankment from the car-park above.
Only the lowest of the low do this. Scum.
August 13th – A bit better today, and I’m on the mend, and out and about earlier. Time I note for another periodic explanation…
This isn’t pollution at Catshill Junction, or anywhere else it’s happening. This time the scum film at wind traps and bends on the canal is caused by rose bay willow herb plants, which are currently going to seed and producing oodles of the white fluff.
Just like the sallow earlier in the year, it looks horrid as the chaff and hairy detritus forms a film on the water – but it’ll soon be gone.
Another curious little marker of the passing seasons.
May 17th – Only a short ride today, as my stomach was bad and I was busy with other stuff.
On the canal at Newtown, a familiar scum is developing, and I always get concerned mail from readers about it, who are justifiably concerned that the canal has been polluted by some foreign substance.
Well, it has and it hasn’t: but it’s nothing to worry about. The white film is the pollen and detritus from Sallow trees (Goat Willow) which bloom at this time of year and shed white fluff to the four winds – and it gathers on the canal surface, looking like some terrible contaminant.
It’s really a natural, organic thing and nothing to worry about.
September 22nd – Cycling down Green Lane between Shelfield and Walsall Wood, I’m greeted by a discarded mattress. Clearly just thrown off the back of a van or truck, there hasn’t even been an attempt to get it to a gateway or lay-by.
Some people aren’t fit to live with pigs. Utter scum.
May 5th – Only a short spin around Brownhills as I’d had a bunch of unexpected work crop up. It was pleasant enough though, and decent weather for a bank holiday, to boot.
It’s time for the annual warning – this scum on the canal isn’t pollution. Yes, it looks horrendous, but it’s natural – it’s wind-born debris from some shrub or other (never worked out which). It drifts over the surface of the canal and forms in scummy, oil-like ripples.
Nothing to be concerned about, it’s perfectly natural and soon disappears.
April 23rd – Spinning home from work, I noticed fresh flytipping in the gateway again at the Shelfield end of Jockey Meadows on Green Lane. A mixture of what looks like building and domestic refuse, it seems to be the usual ‘pull up and shove it off the back of a wagon’ job; unless the culprits have left anything incriminating, or were witnessed, it’s sadly very unlikely they’ll be caught.
People make excuses for this behaviour, saying stuff like ‘If the refuse tips were free for commercial vehicles it wouldn’t happen’ – it would. If you’re prepared to flytip, you aren’t going to go halfway across the borough to an approved tip. The morons who do this do so because it’s easy, relatively risk free, and because, without a doubt, they’re filthy scum with no pride in their environment or concern for others.
It makes me sad and angry.
September 26th – Further up the canal at Pelsall Road, I noticed what appeared to be oil on the surface of the canal. I was quite concerned as I approached, but I realised as I got closer that the scum is in fact a mixture of leaf-litter and other seed debris that had fallen onto the surface of the water. There must be physical reasons why it all seems to clump in one place…
February 23rd – Also at Chasewater, there’s some pollution happening.
This is good pollution, however. A casual observer might stand on the waterline of the now-full lake and wonder what the froth and scum is, gently lapping the shore. It’s the side effects of Chasewater once again being host to massive numbers of Gulls, who come here to roost on the water at twilight.
Yes, tens of thousands of birds frequent this reservoir in the evening, where they rest, loaf and bob gently in the wind. Whilst they do this, they preen. The scum is actually bird feathers, plucked during preening.
Biodegradable, they will rot away, or be gathered by other birds for nesting material. Recycled, naturally.
December 1st – I notice that Green Lane on the Walsall Wood/Shelfield border is seeing an increase flytipping again. As usual, this is just domestic refuse, and would have fitted in a wheelie bin or public littler bin. I just can’t work out how the scumbags who do this think. It must take more effort to flytip in many cases than it would do to dispose of the stuff considerately.
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