Fish die during work to test renovated land drain pumps

For six weeks, water levels were allowed to rise in the Holderness Drain to enable engineers to test renovated pumps at the East Hull pumping station, building up a head of stagnant water.

Bodies of coarse fish species including rudd, roach and pike started surfacing in a five-mile stretch upstream of East Hull pumping station and downstream of Great Culvert.

The Environment Agency said the remaining fish population is "healthy" and "viable". However, local farmers said the agency had created its own problem by withholding the water.

The tests are being done to try out new machinery at the East Hull pumping station which is vitally important to prevent flooding in the city, at the end of £800,000 of improvement work.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said: "The fish died as a result of low oxygen and contamination in the water, a combination of weather conditions over the summer and the lack of flow."

She added that the rest of the tests were going to be carried out within the coming weeks and farmers and the internal drainage board would be kept abreast of developments.

She said: "We have some fine and detailed calibration tests which we are looking to carry out. We will be looking at holding some water back again to raise water levels, but it will depend on the weather."

The four pumps at East Hull can pump the equivalent of seven-and-a-half tonnes of water per second from the Holderness Drain, when high tides prevent it from discharging into the Humber.