Cyanide could be gone in a week claims expert

A SENIOR lecturer in geosciences, Dr Jonathan Paul, claims the situation [with the cyanide spill] would hopefully be resolved within a week.

In the meantime a barrier has been placed across the Walsall Canal to control the leak and prevent it spreading even more.

The cyanide was one of three substances released from the factory into the waterway with the expert believing it could be removed or neutralised within a week.

Several strategies

Dr Paul, speaking on BBC radio suggests there were several strategies the Environment Agency could use to dilute or remove the toxic substance from the water.

He telling that one of the cheaper solutions would be just to dilute the water, pump in a load of fresh water from somewhere else so the concentrations go down, adding:

"There are other more active things they could do, they could run it through a filter to try and remove it.

"Or they could add certain chemicals to the water which would have the effect of taking the cyanide out of the water and making it a kind of scum on the surface which could be skimmed off and then disposed of safely."

How miles of canal water can be filtered is not stated.