Thames Water pumps sewage into rare chalk stream for five months straight

5 comments

1. A village in Buckinghamshire has been turned into an “open sewer”, the council has said, after discovering [Thames Water](https://inews.co.uk/topic/thames-water?ico=in-line_link) has been dumping untreated waste into a local river for five months continuously.

   Thames Water has been spilling raw sewage into the [River Misbourne](https://inews.co.uk/news/sewage-pollution-chalk-stream-water-2903327?ico=in-line_link), a 16-mile chalk stream that flows through several villages in Buckinghamshire, continuously since 25 January, the water company’s monitors show.

   However, the local parish council was only made aware of the five-month long spill one week ago, as a technical error meant the incident was not showing on Thames Water’s online map.

   Chalfont St Giles councillor Robert Gill told i the village, known as the home of the 17th-century poet John Milton, “smelled like an open sewer”.

   The council has been forced to temporarily close a play park and the riverside due to public health concerns.

   Last week Thames Water took water samples to test for chemicals, including ammonia and dissolved oxygen, which are indicators of sewage pollution.

   Mr Gill said the initial results were “very, very high”, but Thames Water is still verifying the figures.

   “We can’t risk leaving the playing areas and our open spaces near the river open because they are polluted,” he told **i**.

   Mr Gill added that there is “sewage fungus floating down the river and sticking to the sides”.

   Thames Water has blamed the sewage spills on high groundwater and river levels, which have filled the firm’s sewers in the area above capacity.

   The River Misbourne has been flooded since January, a result of heavy rainfall throughout the winter and spring.

   “Our region has experienced the eighth-wettest winter on record, resulting in exceptionally high groundwater and river levels.

   “This groundwater and river floodwater then entered our sewers and filled the Amersham storm tanks, meaning they are full and are discharging diluted wastewater into the river Misbourne, for which we are sorry,” a Thames Water spokesperson said.

2. I really do hope people remember that they filled our rivers with literal shit the last time (among many many many other things) when they try and sneak in again with promises of vague centre-rightism and a fresh-faced leader in 2030…

3. Voted for the Conservatives so presumably this is what the locals wanted?

4. The reason this topic never comes up in election debates is because none of the parties want to do anything to stop it.

5. > Chalfont St Giles councillor Robert Gill told i the village, known as the home of the 17th-century poet John Milton, “smelled like an open sewer”.

   No surprise given that it had literally been involuntarily converted into an open sewer.

   I was reading an old Horrible Histories the other day about Vile Victorians who would channel their toilets directly into the same rivers they used for drinking and washing, but I suppose the author never guessed that we would just start doing that again.