I'm Photographing Polluted Areas.........

[AntiPollution]

Hi, I am a photographer based in London and have begun a visual-project based on polluted landscapes in the UK. I have done plenty of research, and have found many examples of pollution in the UK. BUT I am looking for current issues, areas that are polluted. Perhaps severely polluted?

So I am looking for members to get in touch and tell me their stories, where ever you may be. I have several locations already, but I am looking for more!

I hope to get this published to create awareness to the variety pollution issues around the UK.

Then around Europe and perhaps beyond.........

Many Thanks

J

[watsthat]

This may interest you J; some kind of waste has recently been spread over a field of many acres in beautiful countryside near my home. It looked like chicken manure but I couldn`t be certain. However it certainly contained a large amount of plastic waste, blue, black and white, with other rubbish as well. The net result was the litter strewn scene as shown in this pic;




Pete

[AntiPollution]

Pete, Sounds awful , why do people continue to do things like this? Its the sort of thing I am documenting, Where is it? Thanks for getting back to me .

James

[Blackbrook Eye]

More power to you on this issue, my main gripe is the amount if litter left around after bin collection, with the recent high winds we have been experiencing, the streets of this village look like an old fashioned tip. If I had caused this amount of pollution I would, quite rightly, be facing prosecution. However, the people who are getting paid to prevent the problem seem to be among the worst perpetrators, and are not called to task. A sad situation.
By the way, welcome to WAB, I am sure you will have a great number of supporters on this topic, Regards, Keith

[Kayleigh]

I walk the dog around Towcester there is lots of fly tipping, beer cans/bottles in hedges, plastic bags. Mac Donald's rubbish thrown from passing cars. There is even grass/garden turf opposite someone's gate into a country lane. Looks like they just dumped it in the lane instead of their green bin.

[watsthat]

Originally Posted by AntiPollution

Pete, Sounds awful , why do people continue to do things like this? Its the sort of thing I am documenting, Where is it? Thanks for getting back to me .

James

Hi James, I`m in East Yorkshire about 200 miles from London.

Pete

[AntiPollution]

So yesterday I went to Bedshire where (In reference to Kayleigh's post) concrete was poured into a ancient wood. So I got the train to Bedford, and cycled the 7-8 miles along the old railway route. Very nice (except the dumped items along the way). Got to the village, spoke to one of the local and directed me to the Manor house (whose land was affected). Spoke to the Lady of the Estate, she was lovely but explained that the concrete had been removed! Fanastic, but not the images I wanted, A bad thing for me is a fanastic thing for the enviroment! Some concrete still remains on the trees, but the flowers are bursting out ready to grow (this a day after the concrete was removed!).

I am still looking to hear members own local issues and obviously willing to travel the country, all I require is the location and desciption of the pollution.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by AntiPollution

So yesterday I went to Bedshire where (In reference to Kayleigh's post) concrete was poured into a ancient wood. So I got the train to Bedford, and cycled the 7-8 miles along the old railway route. Very nice (except the dumped items along the way). Got to the village, spoke to one of the local and directed me to the Manor house (whose land was affected). Spoke to the Lady of the Estate, she was lovely but explained that the concrete had been removed! Fanastic, but not the images I wanted, A bad thing for me is a fanastic thing for the enviroment! Some concrete still remains on the trees, but the flowers are bursting out ready to grow (this a day after the concrete was removed!).

I am still looking to hear members own local issues and obviously willing to travel the country, all I require is the location and desciption of the pollution.

I'm glad the concrete did not cause lasting damage.

[wildmanofthewoods]

Hi a different slant on things maybe;

To me just about everywhere man has touched he has polluted in some way, nowhere more so than the concrete jungle he calls home, taken for granted is this landscape but once it was a beautiful forest or a flower rich meadow. True we all have to have somewhere to live but what of the future i'm sure that somewhere, somewhere beautiful is being earmarked for development/pollution.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by wildmanofthewoods

Hi a different slant on things maybe;

To me just about everywhere man has touched he has polluted in some way, nowhere more so than the concrete jungle he calls home, taken for granted is this landscape but once it was a beautiful forest or a flower rich meadow. True we all have to have somewhere to live but what of the future i'm sure that somewhere, somewhere beautiful is being earmarked for development/pollution.

Yep, They are going to biuld 4000 houses in Towcester on beautiful farmland.

[NicolaB]

We've got plenty of polluted rivers here in South Wales...it's my job to see how the invertebrate life is doing in them!!

some of the orange rivers round here where we've had minewater breakouts from old coal mines are very impressive!

[AntiPollution]

Hi guys,

Firstly wild man of the woods, totally agree, we have "manufactured" the landscape i.e Hedges, rivers, forests, beaches......And then we have the roads, rail, power lines, So what is a natural landscape? (Perhaps a worth while Discussion). Im actually doing a Brownfield vs Greenfield as part of this work I am looking at the land ear marked for developement (so again thank you Kayleigh for your info!) and land that is unused brownfield which could easily serve the intended purpose. Obviously London is full of unused "brownfield sites" but they are either heavily polluted and no-one wants to spend £££ to clean it up or some fat cat is sat on the land waiting for a pay day ££££.

Nicola B, Could you give me more information? Sound really interesting, I had heard of a river in N.Ireland that had been polluted by a company dumping concrete in it (v.clever ) so would be interested to hear more.

Thanks for the input, and as always I am intersted to hear your stories, regardless of what it may be, and however far away!

J

[NicolaB]

I'll have to ask around at work...I think most of them have got filtration schemes on them now to remove the ochre before it enters a watercourse...but you'd still get some nice shots of orange contained reed beds rather than rivers

More of them appear all the time though, because of the coal-mining legacy we have round here.

[AntiPollution]

Hi Nicola,

Ive been photographing polluted rivers in London and wanted to check how polluted they are, to back to up the eimages. Any advice for ways of testing the water?

J

[NicolaB]

Your best bet is to contact your local Environment Agency office, and ask them for their latest Water Quality results. The Public relations Dept is your best bet, as they'll ask the scientific teams for you

I can't help with that one personally as I'm based in Wales...and haven't a clue about particular issues in London!!

Hope that helps!

[Weztaraba]

Hello ,

I am very interested by your work myself I am doing a similar job but I record a video. And I would like know wich are the most polluted areas in London.
If somebody can help me it is very urge

Thank

[EnviroCop]

depends how polluted you mean, illegal dumping, unconsented development and general questionable agricultural practise are destroying our natural areas all across the UK and Ireland. All the national EPA's face a uphill struggle to police the tide of damage. Even if you catch the offenders the courts are a joke, multi-million £££ business's getting fined £1000 for damaging ASSI/SSSI and Natura 2000 sites. Play golf with a magistrate or sleep with your MP and you get do what you like....no names!!!

i visited a site today inside a saltmarsh/ mudflat which is designated an SPA were the landowner has infilled the salt marsh foreshore with several thousand tonnes of quarry stone....over 1500m2 lost habitat...no consent no planning permission, but what is £1000 fine when you sell a new house on the beach for £800K?

sorry for the rant...but there are no shortage of sites to photograph...

[wanlock dod]

Well I'm a bit at odds with EnviroCop, I think that most of the serious pollution issues have actually been dealt with years ago, although obviously as we clear away the mess we start to observe problems which were obscured by the other, bigger, problems that were just dealt with.

Most of the serious pollution is quite difficult to see I suspect. I've heard of an estuary in the South which has no molluscs, apparently due to metal pollution. The Mersey and Tees estuaries are both pretty contaminated, but it's hardly as though they're flowing with blood.

My recommendation, however, is for you to head off in the direction of Avonmouth. I've heard that around the former zinc smelter (yes it's closed) is the one place in the UK that you can really see pollution (i.e. sufficient contamination to cause toxicity or other effects). As I understand it there's basically nowt to see, and that's basically because nothing can grow there.

I'd be interested to see how you do though, I've often tried to find a good picture of dreadful pollution, but always failed so far to find one that was quiet appaling enough.

[EnviroCop]

wanlock dod

while you make a valid point that major environmental disasters are thankfully few and far between in the UK and most of Western Europe, we are suffering a environmental disaster "almost silently" a death by a thousand cuts. In the recent flooding how many domestic oil tanks where uprooted from gardens, how many WWTW and pumping stations flooded pouring raw sewage across the land and into our rivers...the fields are currently water logged across the UK and Ireland and yet the farmers have little choice but to load the fields with slurry and dirty water. Policitians suggest we pay for every bin of domestic waste...have they any clue how much illegal dumping currently occurs ?

Ok its not seabirds drowning in crude oil or bright green lake as we saw in the Soviet block when the wall came down but its all serious environmental damage....step back from the view finder and look around you?
E