ENVIRONMENTAL workers said that it will probably take a week to clean up pollution after oil leaked into a fish and duck pond in north Essex.The pond in Church Road, Little Bentley, was contaminated after a car hit a domestic oil tank nearby and firefighters diluted the spillage to clear the resulting leak.

ENVIRONMENTAL workers said that it will probably take a week to clean up pollution after oil leaked into a fish and duck pond in north Essex.

The pond in Church Road, Little Bentley, was contaminated after a car hit a domestic oil tank nearby and firefighters diluted the spillage to clear the resulting leak.

The accident was reported on Sundayafter it happened some time the day before.

Unfortunately, around 15,000 litres of the oil found its way into a ditch system and went on to enter the pond, which contained ornamental fish and domestic ducks.

Two of the birds were taken to a nearby animal sanctuary while yesterday the environment officer in charge of the clean-up said he hoped most of the fish would survive.

The incident has been classed as Category 2, which is the second most serious type of spill.

A tanker yesterdaywent to the site in an effort to suck up oil off the surface of the water.

Pollution clean-up contractors dug a large sump for the oil to drain and the water level of the pond was lowered to help them rescue the fish.

The next stage will be to cover the polluted area with absorbent matting to try and draw up as much of the contaminant as possible.

"It is never going to be 100%," an Environment Agency spokesman said from the site.

"Some of the soil around the pond will have to be removed. However, it appears that none of the fish have died. We are currently taking them all out"

He added that he did not believe the fire service were to blame for the contamination.

"They attended the scene and did the best they could.

"There is no way they could have predicted this would happen."