A rock star turned environmentalist has claimed that the River Foss's green covering is caused by sewage.

Feargal Sharkey, former frontman of 1970s and 80s band The Undertones, claimed that York's second river is dying because of the amount of pollution dumped into it and accused the Environment Agency (EA) of not tackling the issue.

An agency spokesperson said: “The EA is holding the water industry to account on a scale never seen before, and we have significantly driven up monitoring and transparency from water companies in recent years.

Mr Sharkey said figures from Yorkshire Water's "sewage overflow data" show that in 2021 the utility company discharged sewage into watercourses in York Outer parliamentary constituency for 7,909 hours on 980 occasions and for 15,945 hours on 1,940 occasions in the York Central parliamentary constituency.

As well as the River Foss, both constituencies include stretches of the River Ouse and between them, other watercourses, such as the Tang Hall Beck, Holgate Beck and the Rivers Nidd and Derwent.

As the Press reported in December, Cllr Paula Widdowson, the city council's executive member for environment and climate change, has called for action to clean up the Rivers Foss and Ouse, quoting figures from the Rivers Trust showing water companies dumped raw sewage 2,392 times into the rivers in York in 2020, for a total of 14,838 hours.

Mr Sharkey was commenting after the York Press revealed yesterday the agency's  explanation for the green vegetation covering large areas of the River Foss.

The EA told us it is duckweed that is normally not harmful to wildlife.

An EA spokesman said: "Duckweed collects on nutrient-rich rivers such as the Foss and during periods of warm, settled and dry weather, its growth can be exacerbated."

Mr Sharkey tweeted: "Is there actually a functioning sewage system in York?"

He added: "Duckweed is symptomatic of too much nutrient in a river. In this case, yep, sewage discharge. Who knew."

He also tweeted: "it's a clear sign that the river is dying and that's the issue, the Environment Agency's seeming refusal to identify and deal with the underlying disease, sewage pollution."

Mr Sharkey was quoting from the website Top-of-the-Poops.org which analyses Environment Agency data. The Government agency is responsible for granting permits for organisations and companies to discharge into the country's watercourses.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We recognise our share of the responsibility to care and protect our rivers. We are committed to working closely with various stakeholders, including the Environment Agency, to enhance and safeguard Yorkshire’s rivers.”

The agency spokesperson said: “We recently requested detailed data from over 2200 wastewater treatment works as part of the biggest investigation we have ever undertaken into potential permit breaches – and where there is evidence of non-compliance we will not hesitate to pursue the water companies concerned and take appropriate action.

“We continue to take tens of thousands of water quality samples ourselves every year as part of our work to keep rivers clean and have placed a range of new requirements on water companies to significantly increase their monitoring and reporting so that this data is available to all.”