From toilets to teeth, SEPA gets asked the oddest things

27th December 2007

As you might imagine, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) gets a
lot of queries every year. They arrive in their thousands by email, web, and phone.

Hundreds of these are formal Freedom of Information enquiries about environmental facts and figures. However many of them, which come in through our 24 hour communication centre, are just a bit bizarre. Here's a few, quite genuine, enquiries which made us chuckle in 2007:

· Distressed about the colour of the water in her home, a woman called SEPA
saying the water must be contaminated because.her hair had turned green. Upon
further investigation, it was her teenage daughter pulling a prank, she'd put
colouring in the shampoo bottle!
· Another caller contacted us saying that her toilet was blocked and she
couldn't bath the children, could we help?
· One concerned citizen rang about a funny smell coming from a petrol
station. Taking this complaint our operator asked what the smell was like. The
answer - it resembled diesel fumes.

SEPA was also asked what help we could provide to deal with a neighbour's overgrown shrubbery, whether a singing group's annual party had environmental health implications (makes you wonder what they do, doesn't it?) if we can help a Nottingham-based paper business get a well priced warehouse and how to dispose of old teeth!

On a more serious note, SEPA's Pollution Reportline 0800 80 70 60 and Floodline 0845 988 1188 are open 24/7, throughout the year. So if you wish to report suspected pollution, or are looking for flooding advice or warning information, please do call us any time.