East Lothian council and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have said that they are continuing to carry out work to clean the River Esk from pollution.
The River Esk was filled with pollution at Musselburgh on Friday, January 14, and the impact on local wildlife and the local environment is believed to be of concern.
Both organisations have said that they are keeping an eye on the Esk environment and that multiple measures have been installed in the watercourse to help curb the contamination - measures which they say are working well.
In their announcement they said: “Clean-up operations continue to progress. A tanker was back out on site on Monday [January 24] and removed a further significant amount of contaminated material from the Craigie Burn.
“While the situation with discoloured water and odour in the River Esk has improved, local people may still observe some discolouration on the surface of the river as well as the Craigie Burn, which discharged into the Esk, particularly if we experience significant rainfall patterns.
“Frequent multi-agency assessment of progress continues to be made in order to inform further remedial actions, including further deployment of the tanker as necessary.”
SEPA and the local authority are understood to have been supported in their response to the contamination by both Scottish Water and Scottish SPCA.
SEPA are continuing to carry out their investigations and assessments in order to be able to trace the source of the pollution, which has sparked outrage among the Musselburgh community.
Luminous green Dye testing is being used by the organisation to check for drainage system connections and SEPA have said that residents need not have concern as the dye is safe as well as designed for this exact purpose.
Water samples have been taken from several sites.
Survey activity carried out by SEPA ecologists to understand the impact of the pollution incident on the River Esk and its affected tributary was repeated today. It continues to show that while the receiving burn is currently heavily impacted, the short-term impact on the river is low.
Officers are believed to be following a number of lines of enquiry.
