Milk tanker overturns and leaks 28,000 litres of milk, turning UK river white

As the saying goes, don't cry over spilled milk.

Residents of Llanwrda, a small village in Carmarthenshire in western Wales, spent part of this week watching as the waters of the River Dulais - which runs through the town - turned a pearly-white hue.

This bizarre scene happened after a tanker carrying a massive amount of milk crashed off the road and headlong into the water body.

According to a BBC report, an estimated 28,000 liters of milk leaked into the river after the traffic accident.

Environmentalist Will Millard told the BBC that while milk might be a "benign substance" that people drink every day, a spillage of this magnitude could "(napalm) a forest." This is because milk can affect the "complex web of life" in a river, and by extension the food chain.

"If you kill one thing, it can quickly kill the whole river," Millard said. "Rivers are one of our most vulnerable eco-systems, it doesn't take much to wipe them out completely."

Environmental officers from Natural Resources Wales visited the site on Thursday to assess the "significant discoloration."

Speaking to ITV, Natural Resources Wales team leader Ioan Williams said that milk was one of the "worst things that can end up in the river."

"It takes the oxygen out of (the river), which means that fish and other aquatic life can't live," Williams said. "It's seven times or so worse than cattle slurry - so it's pretty bad."

Williams confirmed that no fish appeared to be harmed by the milk spill, as fisheries officers did not find any dead or distressed fish.

"Our biologists are coming out in the next day or two and they will take a closer look at whether there's been any impact on the invertebrates - the bugs that live in the river," he said, adding that he hoped to not see any "lasting effects" from the spill.

Natural Resources Wales confirmed later on Thursday that the milkiness in the River Dulais was clearing up, as the milk "slug" had moved down to the Tywi, a 120-km long river valley, and largely dissipated.