THE source of pollution which turned an Addingham beck the colour of tea is still being investigated by officials from the Environment Agency.

Officers were called by a member of the public on September 18 after it was noticed that Town Beck in the village had turned brown.

A spokesman from the Environment Agency said: "Officers were alerted by a member of the public who said that the water had turned dark brown and smelled bad.

"The officers discovered that a three kilometre stretch of the beck was discoloured. The officers could not quantify the effect on the River Wharfe because it became too dark for them to see. The next day our investigations continued and it was discovered that there was no significant effect on the river."

Environment Agency officials had investigated an earlier incident on September 9, when central heating oil had leaked into the beck, causing significant pollution.

This time a boom was stretched across the stream and absorbent pads were put in to mitigate the effect of the pollution. The bodies of four dead fish were seen.

Parish council chairman Gordon Campbell told a recent meeting that the oil leaked into the stream when a householder's central heating tank cracked.

He said that the tank had just been filled up at the time and it emptied overnight into a garden, soaking through the ground until it ran into the stream. He said that the householder's garden may have to be dug up in the future to get rid of all the oil residue.

Parish council vice-chairman Michael Aldridge said: "This tank was filled up for the winter with heating oil - most of it had gone the next day."

The other incident, said Coun Campbell was more sinister because it could have involved deliberate dumping of waste material into the water.

He said: "Someone at the end of the village has just been putting stuff into the beck and making it really, really dirty. We don't know what it is but it was a real mess. It was like cold tea.

"It means someone is discharging something into Town Beck. We will have to do something about it."

Coun Aldridge promised to try and track down the culprit. He said: "If it is like that next week we will get a sample and we will walk up and find out where it is clean. It is the

second week in a row that it has

happened."

Coun Aldridge said that trout had been seen in the beck by villagers recently.

Anyone wanting to report a

pollution incident should telephone the Environment Agency's hotline on 0800 807060.

Following the parish council

meeting last month, parish councillors monitored the situation at the

weekend but the water remained clear.

Coun Campbell said that until the actual substance had been analysed, it would be hard to decide whether the water had been polluted by something deliberately dumped in the beck .

He added: "It is difficult to say. We need to know what it is. If we knew what it was it would be easy to decide whether it was deliberate or not. We need to get the experts in to take

samples."