The Agricultural Pollution of Watercourses: The Precedents Set by the Beet-sugar and Milk Industries By JOHN SHEAIL Abstract The inter=war years were an important period in the development of an institutional and research response to pollution issues. The paper focuses on the problems arising from the newly-established beet- sugar factories and the increasingly=centralized milk-handling and =processing industries. Through research and development, it proved possible to accommodate the otherwise wholly welcome develop= ments in rural enterprise, without incurring the risk of serious pollution to the nearby watercourses. 'Y JUNE 199o, two of the UK Research experiences of the newly-established beet- Councils, namely the Agricultural and sugar factories and increasing centralization l . Food Research Council and the Science of milk collection and distribution, and the and Engineering Research Council, estab- processing of milk products. lished a Clean Technology Unit. It was pointed out that 'leaks' and waste products I had often occurred within the interlinked An institutional framework that sought to processes that characterized farming and ensure that policy initiatives were under- the manufacture of farm produce. In some pinned by surveys and experimentation, instances they posed a serious environmen= began to evolve in the I92OS. Mounting tal threat. The Unit was intended to pro- concern as to 'the deplorable position of mote research that forestalled pollution, the (inland) fisheries in relation to river rather than removed it at the 'end of the pollution' caused the Ministry of Agricul- pipe'. Through the rigorous analytical ture and Fisheries (MAF) to appoint an approach of process engineering, control advisory Standing Committee on River strategies would be developed for the Pollution (SCORP) in 1921. Representa- whole production process. tives of the salmon, trout and coarse fish- The purpose of this paper is to provide ing interests, which had done so much to an historical context for the concern and highlight the state of the rivers, together commitment embodied in the Clean Tech- with representatives of the Federation of nology and other initiatives, being taken British Industries, made up the member- to mitigate, if not eliminate, forms of agri= ship of the committee, which was chaired cultural pollution. The examples are drawn initially by the Fisheries Minister and later from the inter-war years. Not only were the Fisheries Secretary, Henry G Maurice. these decades important for the develop- Through a greater knowledge of the con- ment of an institutional framework to fight dition of individual watercourses, and col- pollution in the United Kingdom, but they laboration between fishing interests and yielded further examples of how inno- industry, the Ministry hoped to encourage vation, whilst wholly welcome from an major improvements, x economic, social and political stance, might 'J Sheail, 'Pollution and the protection of inland fisheries in inter- nevertheless bring unwelcome environ- war Britain', in M Shortland, ed, Science and Nature, Oxford, mental impacts. The paper will cite the 1993, pp 41-56. Ag Hist Rev, 4I, I, pp 31-43 3 1 3 2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW As each river was surveyed, or re- By the outbreak of war in I939, the surveyed, members of the SCORP and volume and reputation of the Board's 1 their respective fishery bodies, demanded work warranted the establishment of a action to tackle the many examples of central research laboratory. Prominent pollution identified. Whilst refusing to among the water-pollution issues investi- countenance the establishment of a central gated, that included detailed surveys of statutory body to administer the river the river Tees and Mersey estuary, were system, the Government conceded the investigations as to ways of treating beet- need for a more comprehensive approach sugar and milk effluents. Temporary war- to research. River pollution was a national time accommodation was provided for a problem that would require many years' Water Pollution Research Laboratory in work to resolve. A Water Pollution 194o.4 Research Board was appointed in 1927, under the aegis of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (the II forerunner of the Science (and Engineer- The pollution caused by beet-sugar ing) Research Council). The Board's effluent was so serious and novel as to Director of Research, W T Calvert, was make the factory-owners pioneers in forg- Chemical Inspector for the Ministry of ing the kind of close relationship sought Health, having previously been Chief between different industries and the Water Chemist to the West Riding of Yorkshire Pollution Research Board. Whilst sugar Rivers Board. = beet (Beta vulgaris) had been grown for The Board had three research objec- nearly two centuries, a large-scale pro- tives, namely the treatment of water for cessing industry had only developed in public supply, purification of sewage, and the I92OS (Fig I). The amount of beet prevention of pollution by trade effluents. sugar manufactured rose from 7ooo tons As the Principal Assistant Secretary of the in 1922-3 to over 5oo,ooo tons by Department of Scientific and Industrial 1938-39. A report published by the MAF Research (DSIR), Henry T Tizard, told in 193 I, described the establishment of the the first meeting, the Government were industry as a 'large-scale experiment with- prepared to meet the costs of purely scien- out parallel in the recent history of this tific work; the costs of the industrial appli- country'. Direct State support was pro- cations would be borne by industry. More vided under the British Sugar (Subsidy) positively, there were outstanding oppor- Act of 1925. By the time the Water tunities to fulfil an avowed intention of Pollution Research Board was set up in the DSIR, namely to bring companies in I927, there were fourteen factories, and relevant sectors of industry together the prospect of many more. An inquiry jointly to fund and facilitate the necessary into future support for the industry, in research. Annual reports of the Board 1935, found them well-equipped; they recounted the close contacts made with compared favourably with those on the companies. Relevant information and Continent. Beet-sugar production was 'a facilities were made freely available to the technical process of considerable nicety'. Board's scientists) As a continuous operation from washing Water Pollution Research Board (WPRB), Water pollution research 1947, HMSO, p 1. J Public Record Office (PRO), DSIR 13, 5; WPRB, Report for the ),ear ended e 9 june agM, HMSO, 193x, pp 2 & 6-8; H Melville, 4pRO, DSIR x3, 93; WPRB, Water pollution research a939-1945, The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1962. HMSO, 1947. THE AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION OF WATERCOURSES 33 ~Ev so rapidly as to reduce the concentration ) PRE 1925 of dissolved oxygen to so low a level as @1925 / C to destroy fish and other aquatic life, @192, ? \ characteristic of a healthy river. 6 1925 / o-.._ , When King George V toured the Col- wick factory in November I926, local ? o%o. \ newspapers highlighted how he enquired as to what became of the waste waters, commenting, 'You must be very careful you do not get in danger of river pol- i_ co,w,cK O ~ rKi.a's ,v.. lution'. The Managing Director assured him that the water was not returned to ~_ l P~TERBOROUO.CII,~ C) t the river until it had been filtered and J t3 5"~ (3 / purified. Less than half of one per cent in weight of the beet was lost during the manufacturing process. A month later, however, magistrates fined the company £25, with £15 costs, as a result of an action brought with reluctance, but after due warning, by the Trent Fishery Board. The secretary of the Nottingham City Police Angling Club recounted how hun- FIGURE I dreds of dead and dying fish had been Devdop,nent of beet-sugar factories (after H D Watts, found. Chemical analysis of the river The location of the beet-sugar industry in England and water, and post-mortem examination of Wales, 19 I2-36, Transactions of the Institute of British two bream, carried out by lecturers at Geo2raphers, 53, I97L p to9) University College, Nottingham, pointed to their having been killed by the beet the roots to the bagging of the sugar, it effluent. 7 had to be carefully balanced (Fig 2)) Visually, the most obvious effect of Much publicity was given to the fact pollution was the growth of the sapro- that nothing was wasted. If the farmer phytic organisms, known collectively as kept the beet tops, and could be persuaded 'sewage fungus'. Whereas it was common- to use the residues from the manufacturing place to find a small growth within a process (as happened on the Continent short distance of the outfall of sewage and in America), practically everything works, an unmistakable and heavy crop was returned to the soil. There remained, extended for some twenty miles along the however, the question of the waste waters, river Ouse, below the Ely and Wissington that would have to be discharged to factories, and for twelve miles down- nearby streams or rivers. Whilst they con- stream of the Bury St Edmunds works in tained scarcely any directly toxic sub- Suffolk. Besides its unpleasant appearance, stances, the organic matter decomposed portions of the fungus broke loose and Ministry of" Agriculture and Fisheries, Report a:a the sugar beet floated downstream in masses, adhering indastry at borne and abroad, Economic series 27, HMSO, London, to any obstruction. In time, every object 1931, p i; PP, 1934-35. Xl, Ministry of Agriculture, Report of the UK S.gar Industry Inquiry Committee, Cmd 487I; H D Watts, in the water might be covered, thereby 'The location of the beet sugar industry in England and Wales', 1912-36, Trans hlst Brit Geog, 53, '97 I, pp95-~16; H D Watts, ~'Notti.ghamJo.rnal, :4 November 1926.