There’s nothing better than settling down to watch 12 ridiculously talented amateur bakers battle it out in a sweltering hot tent somewhere in the British countryside. Now, the pristine setting that the ‘Great British Baking Show’ tent is erected in every year is under threat as toxic runoff from roads surrounding the Welford Park Estate is polluting streams and rivers in the area.
A report from the BBC has found that the country estate which plays host to the Baking Show tent every year, has been hit by toxic runoff from the roads and highways that surround the site. According to the report, rivers that flow through the Welford Park Estate have been found to contain oil, chemicals and even rubber particulates from car and truck tires.
The waterway that’s been affected by the runoff is the River Lambourn. The chalk stream runs through the grounds of the country estate before passing underneath the M4 motorway in Berkshire. As the BBC explains:
At that point it turns brown and murky. Chalk streams are supposed to have clean gravel beds.
“Look at this black gunk,” Charlotte Hitchmough, the director of Action for the River Kennet (of which the Lambourn is a tributary) says as she scrapes a net along the bottom. In the past she has sent samples of the “gunk” away to be tested.
“There’s some really scary pollutants in there. Things like arsenic, lots of heavy metals, lots of things from oil, microplastics from tyres [sic], we can be sure that the road is having a really negative effect on the ecology of this river.”
Discharge like this is meant to be monitored along highways in England, however the National Highways administration assessed the crossing as “low risk,” so the BBC reports that no mitigation measures were in place to protect the water quality in the River Lambourn.
Once substances like fuel, tire particulates and dust from brake pads start working their way into rivers and streams, it’s incredibly hard to stop the flow. In an attempt to protect waterways such as this, the BBC reports that National Highways has identified a list of more than 1,000 areas that are at risk of being affected by runoff from roads.
However, it has so far only pledged to install mitigation measures in just 30 of these high-risk areas.
Rather worryingly, runoff like this is only going to get worse in years to come. As we pivot to larger, heavier electric cars there’s a risk that the rate of ware on tires and brakes could rapidly increase the particulates left on our roads and streets. If all these get into rivers and streams, entire ecosystems could be at risk.