World Water Week: Stephen's Stinking Brook
Shirley® and BTTG®’s Managing Director, Stephen Donnelly AKA. (affectionately known as) ‘our Stephen’ or ‘the Don’ by staff, was born and raised near Preston - and is therefore by rights, a staunch Preston North End supporter. If you pop into Stephen’s office and take a quick look around, you’ll quickly spot a stadium photograph hanging on the wall as well as a club scarf; and if you manage to catch him with a couple of minutes to spare he’ll gladly update you on how Preston have been playing recently. Stephen remembers growing up during the 60’s and 70’s when textile production in the north of England was a common sight. He recalls an area near to his childhood home that became dubbed ‘Stinking Brook’ by locals due to the amount of waste from a nearby textile producers that was being discarded into the river. I sat down with Stephen for a little trip down memory lane.
“I grew up in a small town called Adlington, near Preston, on the Greater Manchester and Lancashire border. There was a textile factory, that actually straddled that border and the Douglas River ran underneath.
As a boy, every day after finishing school I would run home, hurriedly change out of my uniform and go to meet my friends on the wreck to play football – there were two wrecks in Adlington, one at the top end and one at the bottom end, and there I’d play all evening until it was time to come in. However, once a week I’d have to miss football on the wreck and visit my Aunt. On that day, after school I’d take a route across an old bridge, the bridge had the old engravings marking nearby towns, I remember ‘Leyland 100 miles’ and ‘Salford 100 miles’ being at either end. I’d look over the bridge and see the River Douglas knowing that a short while further downstream the river met the estuary.”
Stephen recalled, “Each week, when I’d look over that bridge, the water was a different colour. Maybe purple one week, perhaps pink another, some weeks I remember seeing the river steaming. We all knew what it was, that effluent waste containing dye stuff was being disposed of into the river by the nearby textile factory, and the river became dubbed ‘Stinking Brook’ by locals.”
Elaborating further, Stephen said, “After the estuary that river joined the sea, so the chemicals that were poured into the river in our small town were eventually reaching the ocean. Also, the wetlands around the nearby Ribble Estuary are one of the most important breeding grounds for wild birds. When you think about the impact on wild life and marine life here, the damage had the potential to be significant.”
But, like all good stories, this one has a happy ending. The textile factory Stephen knew growing up is one of the few remaining UK textile producers still here today. And over the years, they have made huge improvements and have evidenced that their commitment to reducing their impact on the environment plays a major part in the way they operate; recently installing one of industries largest heat recovery systems, recovering waste heat from waste water and atmospheric releases to heat, clean and process water. And funnily enough, they’re now a Shirley® client.
“Looking back, it’s incredible to think about the change that has been accomplished in one lifetime.”
Image By Gary Rogers, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9292763
Shirley®
OEKO-TEX® provides support on your path to a sustainable future and offers customised solutions. With DETOX TO ZERO by OEKO-TEX®, producers in the textile and leather industries are provided with a valuable tool for achieving Greenpeace DETOX goals. DETOX TO ZERO assesses, audits and reports on the wastewater and sludge quality, the use of chemicals and other environmental aspects. The independent verification is aimed at wet facilities along the entire supply chain of the textile and leather industry and supports them on the path to greater transparency and sustainability.
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