Foul Water Days
“The chief executive of the campaign group River Action said despite successive government’s promises, England’s rivers remained among the ‘filthiest in Europe, poisoned by sewage from polluting, profit-driven water companies and by industrial-scale agriculture, including chicken manure runoff from intensive poultry units that rear tens of millions of birds for fast-food chains and supermarkets.’ ”
—The Guardian
The Wye left Wordsworth wonder-struck—
Now, algae blooms where chickens cluck;
The Thames, once sweet in Spenser’s song,
Gives off an unidyllic pong.
Yes, filth is fair in food production
(Though blamed for habitat destruction),
And what ten million birds excrete
A minor cost for what we eat.
No use escaping to the sea
To splash and swim pollution-free.
What beach can act as health-renewer
When England’s channel is a sewer?
It seems that leaks and overflows
Cause small concern to CEOs
And profit blesses broken rules . . .
So, never mind those floating stools.