River sewage spills shock

UNTREATED sewage has been spilling into the River Thames in Henley for more than a decade.

There were at least 50 incidents between 2009 and 2022 when the Henley treatment works has discharged sewage into the water course via the Fawley Court Stream.

Thames Water reported no sewage discharges to the Environment Agency last year but data analysis has found there were two discharges in February.

According to the company’s interactive overflows map, which shows up-to-date spills, it discharged sewage into the river last month for 12 hours.

Professor Peter Hammond, of campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, analysed 14 years of data using Freedom of Information requests and says river users are being put at risk.

He has identified at least six places where untreated sewage can get on the Henley Royal Regatta course from the Fawley stream.

Water companies are allowed to spill sewage into open water following heavy rainfall to prevent the system becoming overloaded and backing up into homes.

But campaigners have said these spills are happening too often.

Last year, Thames Water dumped raw sewage into the Thames and its tributaries in West Oxfordshire 507 times, lasting for 6,362 hours. Prof Hammond gave a presentation of his findings to a group of more than 70 people representing community groups, including rowers, swimmers and other river users, at Henley town hall on Wednesday.

The event was organised by Laura Reineke, a member of the Henley Mermaids open water swimming group, which is campaigning to make the river a safe place to use.

The meeting was expected to resolve to write to Thames Water asking it to invest in sewage infrastructure.

Participants will also lobby local politicians to back a national charter for healthy rivers by 2030.

Prof Hammond, who spent 20 years working at University College London’s Institute of Child Health, said the treatment works in Henley was inadequate.

He said: “Analysis shows that the works intermittently suffers equipment failure, probably of pumps, resulting in discharges of untreated sewage into the Thames, close to the royal regatta site.

“In 2020 and 2021, two incidents of loss of treated sewage flow in a 48-hour period were associated with unpermitted ammonia levels according to Thames Water’s non-statutory monitoring data that is not submitted to the Environment Agency.

“The statutory ammonia monitoring data that is submitted to the regulator always appears to be well within permitted levels.

“Thames Water needs to explain these apparent losses of treated sewage flow over the past 14 years as well as incidents of potentially unpermitted ammonia levels.

“It should also make available all treated sewage monitoring data that it collects without the need for a Freedom of Information request.

“Both untreated and inadequately treated sewage discharged from the Henley works has the potential to pollute the Thames and adversely affect rowers and officials at the royal regatta.”

Thames Water has been in court twice in the past six years for discharging untreated sewage from the Henley works.

In 2017, the company was fined £20million following incidents between May 2013 and 2014 causing the deaths of fish and impacting Temple Island Meadows, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

In 2021, the company was fined £2.3 million for another incident causing fish deaths in 2016.

Prof Hammond said: “Analysis for the periods of the court cases suggests that the Henley works suffered a sudden loss of treated sewage flow, probably resulting in untreated sewage discharges to the Fawley Court Stream.”

There were eight such occasions in 2013, at least five in 2014 and several in 2016.

“Similar losses of treated sewage may be associated with high ammonia levels in treated sewage leaving Henley in 2020 and 2021.”

Prof Hammond said the regulatory system needed toughening up to force water companies to clean up their act.

He said: “Every sewage works has a permit and they have a description of what information they have to record and what to give to the Environment Agency.

“There is a difference between what they record and what they give to the agency as all it wants is summary data.

“I always ask for the detailed data and so, typically, I can have 100 times more than what the agency asks for. They might ask for how much treated sewage in a day and I would ask for every 15 minutes.” Prof Hammond said there were plans to increase the rate of sewage treatment by 22 per cent by 2025 but this could mean a drop on quality.

He said: “The problem with increasing the rate can be seen at Cassington, near Witney, where they have increased the flow, and I’ve seen things there such as a condom and sweetcorn. It looks like a Mulligatawny soup and that’s when it is treated.

“Henley is not a good works but it is not a bad one. There are some others that are far, far worse and some are really gross.”

Ms Reineke said that Thames Water needed to take immediate action.

She said: “The fact that the sewage is coming straight from the stream and on to the regatta course is horrific. It is probably the busiest stretch on the River Thames with so many river users affected by it as well as the wildlife.

“We want to see tangible improvements from Thames Water to upgrade the sewage treatment works and to set a target that’s not far in the future.

“We also want to see immediate improvements, such as tanks that they can put in to stop the overflow and to keep it until it can be processed through the plant.

“There are things that can be done to reduce sewage. We need a far more comprehensive plan where they can clean the water of bacteria as well as the raw sewage.

“I would like everyone to sign a letter to Thames Water calling for the change because we want a healthy river for Henley.”

Jo Robb, a member of the Henley Mermaids and a Green member of South Oxfordshire District Council, praised “ordinary” people for holding water companies to account.

She said: “This is something we have campaigned on for a long time and the great challenge has been to get any transparency out of Thames Water.

“We were categorically told that sewage discharges were only happening in exceptional circumstances but this is not the case.

“This has been the case in wet weather, dry weather, inside and outside exceptional circumstances and they were not always reporting them to the Environment Agency, which is not being enforced. So we have got a failure at every level.

“What we need is meaningful investment in sewage infrastructure to eliminate discharges.” Last month, water companies pledged to triple investment in Britain’s sewage system to reduce pollution, spending £10 billion but this will result in higher bills for
customers.

Councillor Robb said: “This is totally unacceptable when we already pay them to treat their sewage.

“[Thames Water chief executive] Sarah Bentley has admitted that the problem is a result of chronic lack of investment since privatisation and we need to see urgent investment and that needs to come from the pockets of shareholders.

“This can only be achieved by bringing water companies back into public ownership. The whole system is broken. We have chronic regulatory failure with the Environment Agency losing two-thirds of its funding since 2010.

“It is only down to the hard work of ordinary people, swimmers and anglers that this scandal has been exposed.”

James Wallace, chief executive of environmental charity River Action, said: “We are in a freshwater emergency. Having grown up in the Thames catchment, I am dismayed at the sewage scandal unfolding around Henley and the threat it poses to local river users, livelihoods and national events such as Henley Royal Regatta.

“River Action is helping community groups by facilitating the town hall meeting, funding citizen science, telling the story nationally and gathering interest groups and influential people into an organised, informed and empowered campaign.

“Together, we will send a clear and constructive message to Thames Water and the Environment Agency that it is time to end sewage pollution before more people are seriously ill, businesses and events close, wildlife further declines and water security is threatened.

“Through collaboration and positive engagement, we will support communities up and downstream to hold polluters and regulators to account, including informing the public at summer events, taking the Rescue our Rivers petition with GB rowers to Parliament, launching the Charter for Rivers to inform voters and proposing a River Thames pollution action plan with ambitious target dates and budgets.

“We will make sure the perpetrators of this crisis can no longer ignore the many voices of Henley and the millions of people demanding a clean and healthy River Thames by 2030.”

In a statement, Thames Water said: “Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we will review the findings of this report.

“ We have an upgrade planned for Henley sewage treatment works which will provide a major increase in the site’s treatment capacity and is expected to be completed in 2025.

“We’re also currently supporting the local community’s application for a designated bathing water site in Henley.

“We regard all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and it’s understandable why the public are demanding more from water companies to do better.

“We recently announced our plans to invest £1.6billion on our sewage treatment works and networks over the next two years and are striving every day to reduce the discharge of untreated sewage into our rivers.

“At the beginning of the year we published an online map providing close to real-time information about storm discharges from all of our 468 permitted locations and this continues to be updated with information on improvements being planned for more than 250 sites across our region.

“In addition, The Tideway Tunnel, which will be completed by 2025, at a total investment of more than £4 billion, is designed to dramatically improve the water quality of the River Thames by capturing around 95 per cent of sewage overflows.

“Stopping discharges altogether will take time and sustained investment. However, each step we take on this journey is a move in the right direction.”