AN investigation is under way after a stream became contaminated with substances from an industrial estate.
The inquiry is being carried out by the Environment Agency after kerosene and detergent leaked into a beck in Chilton Wood, near Ferryhill, County Durham.
Police were called out on Saturday after a Territorial Army unit reported a nasty smell, which caused some cadets to be sick, while they were on exercise.
The Environment Agency was alerted and spent the weekend clearing the beck.
A spokesman said: "About one kilometre of the beck tributary is contaminated with kerosene and detergent.
"What has happened is that the kerosene has spilled into an area on a nearby industrial estate and has been washed away into a surface water drainage system. It has then got into this tributary. The smell of the kerosene could have caused people to feel sick but it is not physically harmful to humans.
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