INVESTIGATORS probing the deaths of more than 1,000 fish in a stretch of the Par River say they have found a chemical in the water.
The Environment Agency classed the incident as Category 1, the most serious, after reports began to come in on Monday, July 26, of large numbers of dead fish along an 8km stretch between Luxulyan and Par Beach.
Cornwall Council placed signs at the beach warning people to stay out of the water but removed them on Wednesday, July 31, after it was decided heavy rainfall would have diluted any pollutant and washed it out to sea.
Mike Dunning from the Environmental Agency, described the incident as unusual, in that the pollutant seemed to be very toxic to the fish while having no effect on other life in the river.
Its investigations had found traces of a chemical, but tests were continuing to establish whether this was the cause.
"We had some results back that have shown small traces of a chemical in the water, but whether this is enough to kill so many fish is being looked into by an ecological toxicologist and we hope to have some results soon," he said.
John Page from the Friends of Par Beach said members had been frustrated to find themselves having to field concerned visitors' questions about the pollution which they were unable to answer because of a lack of information from the authorities, and he hoped some facts would be forthcoming in the near future.
"As far as I'm aware all is well," he said. "The warning notices came down early in the week, presumably as Cornwall Council thought there was no more risk from the incident, but I'll be very interested now to hear what the Environment Agency does find out."