AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after a brook running through a popular Chester beauty spot turned pink overnight.
Worried residents alerted the Environment Agency when the stream in Boughton Heath’s Caldy Valley Nature Park mysteriously changed colour.
Agency investigators visited the park to take samples from the brook and are currently waiting for the results of laboratory tests.
Great Boughton resident Carolyn Jebb was walking her Pomeranian puppy, Stanley along Caldy Valley Road when the bright pink stream caught her attention.
She said: “I walk along the road almost every day and the water was pink for about half-a-mile from the back of Sainsbury’s through to the nature park.
“The brook was completely pink and even in the nature park the water was very milky pink. I took some photographs using my phone because it looked bizarre.
“There wasn’t a noticeable smell or anything like that but it was very unusual and I would like to know what caused the water to change colour.
“Lots of fish were killed when the brook was polluted a couple of years ago but thankfully that doesn’t seem to have happened this time.
“I called the Environment Agency when I got home and they told me they had received a number of calls about the brook and I bumped into some neighbours who had also seen the pink water.”
The water is believed to have turned pink sometime between Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28 and remained discoloured for several days although it has now returned to normal.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “The incident was reported to us by a member of the public on Sunday, October 28.
“Members of our out of hours team went to investigate and take samples. We are now awaiting results from these water samples.
“There have been no reports of any dead fish and there are no concerns for public safety at this time.”
Anyone with information about the incident should call the Environment Agency’s incident reporting line on 0800 807060.
Riddle of the dead fish
MORE than 10,000 fish were killed at Caldy Valley Nature Park last year in mysterious circumstances.
Thousands of roach, dace, chub, stone roach, gudgeon and eels were found floating in a stream in the park in March, 2011.
Initially it was feared chemicals had been poured into nearby drains but experts found ‘no pollution’ in test results.
Environment Agency investigators found no signs of contamination in tests of dead fish and water samples.