Water firm’s 75,000 hours of sewage spills

THAMES Water released raw sewage into rivers and waterways for almost 75,000 hours last year.

There were 8,014 spills, down from 14,713 in 2021, but the Environment Agency put the fall largely down to the drier weather, not action by the Reading-based water company.

Campaigners and environmental groups say releasing sewage poses a danger to human health and should stop.

Water companies release sewage when there is too much demand on their treatment works during rainy periods. The untreated effluent contains human waste, wet wipes and sanitary products, which pose a serious risk to the wildlife, swimmers and people who work on the river.

The Environment Agency’s event duration monitoring data for 2022 shows that 480 Thames Water storm overflows have now been fitted with monitoring devices, up from 463 in 2021, and almost 62 per cent are now covered.

The average number of spills per storm overflow was 17 compared to 31.9 in 2021. The average duration of spills was nine hours, meaning the total duration of spills was 74,693. Nationally, the release of sewage by water companies was down by 19 per cent on the previous year.

John Leyland, executive director of the Environment Agency, said: “The decrease in spills in 2022 is largely down to dry weather, not water company action.

“We want to see quicker progress from water companies on reducing spills and acting on monitoring data.

“We expect them to be fully across the detail of their networks and to maintain and invest in them to the high standard that the public expect and the regulator demands."

Jo Robb, South Oxfordshire District Council’s “river champion”, said: “Last summer was the driest summer on record, which is favourable for water companies.

“When we have a high level of rainfall, there are sewage spills up and down the River Thames, which is a direct result of a lack of investment in infrastructure.

“We need to see urgently real investment and penalties on water companies and their directors that dump raw sewage into waterways.”

Laura Reineke, who is part of the open water swimming group Henley Mermaids, said: “They’re beginning to put things in place. Ofwat said there was a proposal of £1.6 billion from water companies to improve their infrastructure but no one has said who will be paying for it.

“That’s the problem with all these proposals. Nothing has been put in place with any sort of guarantee. £1.6 billion will only play for 10,000 spills and last year there were 300,000 nationally.

“I just think it’s too little too late. The chalk streams which feed the River Thames are already dying.

“The Government has also removed the limit of fines put on water companies to empower the Environment Agency to impose on water companies.

“Ofwat wants to reduce the surplus of overflows by 10,000 a year but last year it was at 300,000, which is an awfully low amount of surplus cut – it should be 100 per cent really.”

Remenham Angling Society captain Andrew Crook called the number of sewage spills “outrageous”.

He said: “As far as I understand, they are only allowed to on certain occasions when there has been extreme weather conditions, such as torrential rain and when they are operating close to full capacity. Where we are on our stretch of the river, touch wood, it seems to be fairly healthy but I do know there have been spills in the past locally and it’s not good for the river or for the environment.

“It’s not just boats that use the river, there are swimmers, paddleboarders — a whole network of users. You wouldn’t want to swim in there after reading all the recent news about the water companies.”

On Tuesday, the Government announced that wet wipes containing plastic will be banned from next year.

Wet wipes flushed down toilets cause 93 per cent of sewer blockages which cost around £100 million a year to clear up, according to Water UK. Around 90 per cent of wipes contained plastic in 2021.

Ms Reineke said: “They should have been banned years ago.”

Cllr Robb said: “This is an important way of tackling microplastics and blockages in waterways. It’s long overdue. People have been calling for this for years.”

A Thames Water spokeswoman said: “We’re pleased to see the reduction of undiluted sewage discharges from our permitted sites in 2022. Some of this will have been driven by the dry weather and we know what matters most is stopping the need for the discharges as quickly as possible.  

“That’s why we’ve committed £1.6billion of investment in our sewage treatment works and sewers over the next two years.

“This will help us to deliver our commitment to a 50 per cent reduction in the total annual duration of discharges across London and the Thames Valley by 2030 and within that an 80 per cent reduction in sensitive catchments.  

“We have started the £100 million upgrade of Mogden sewage treatment works and we’re currently increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works to be completed by 2025. 

“We’re also the first company to provide live alerts for all untreated discharges throughout our region and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website and is also available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups. 

“We have a long way to go and we certainly can’t do it on our own — but the ambition is clear.”

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