Milk spills into river

Thousands of litres of buttermilk being carried by a tanker has been spilled into the River Wye, near Rhayader.

It happened at 1.40pm yesterday after a tanker went out of control and overturned on the A470 between Rhayader and Llangurig.

A spokesman for Mid and West Wales Fire Service said firefighters had made the lorry safe. The driver of the tanker escaped serious injury.

He added: “The lorry did not go into the river but spilled some of the buttermilk it was carrying. We called the Environment Agency to monitor the situation.”

John Rowlands, of the Environment Agency, said Mid and West Wales Fire Service had estimated about 20,000 litres of buttermilk had spilled into the river.

Mr Rowlands added: “The fire service were concerned about how much of an impact the incident would have on the river so called on us to monitor the situation.

“We do not know exactly how much buttermilk spilled into the river at this stage but early reports from the fire service suggest about 20,000 litres.”

He said as a precaution, further water from a nearby reservoir had been sent to dilute the impact further down the stream.

Mr Rowlands said Environment Agency officials were set to survey the river today to access the damage to wildlife and habitats.