Thames Water dumping raw sewage into borough rivers

Thames Water dumped untreated sewage into the Thames tributaries, which include streams such as the River Loddon and Whitewater, for more than 85 hours since January 1.

The total duration of the spillages when added together equates to roughly three-and-a-half days.

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Referring specifically to the Basingstoke Sewage Treatment Works, Thames Water said it did not spill sewage from here at all in 2021 and there was only one spillage in 2022, raising questions as to why there have been four already this year at this specific site. 

Data shows that other sites in the borough also released sewage last year, including at Sherfield-on-Loddon Waste Water Treatment Works which released sewage on 26 occasions from 2021-2022 into Bow Brook, totalling 309 hours.

Sewage released from Silchester Waste Water Treatment works for the same period totalled 968 hours on 63 occasions into Silchester Brook.

Water companies are allowed to release untreated waste when the system becomes overwhelmed.

This prevents sewage from backing up into houses and through manhole covers into the street.

This sometimes happens following heavy or continued rainfall, which gets mixed in with the foul water resulting in the sewer system being unable to cope with the extra volume.

Known as storm overflows, these are now regulated by the Environment Agency which grants permits and sets conditions.

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So far this year, the storm overflows have been used on eight separate occasions in Basingstoke and Deane, including the River Loddon where sewage was dumped from Basingstoke Sewage Treatment Works for 20 hours on January 16. 

The data has prompted Basingstoke MP Maria Miller to question whether the River Loddon is reaching capacity when it comes to future house building.

She met with officials from the Environment Agency to review the data and plans for the coming year. 

She contacted Thames Water for an "urgent meeting" after hearing of the four unplanned storm overflows at the Basingstoke STW in January, and said: "It is completely unacceptable that unplanned storm overflows occurred four times in January; this comes after we experienced only one overflow in the whole of 2022.

"As I have said many times before, it cannot be overstated how important it is to keep the River Loddon healthy. The river is at the centre of our local ecosystem and Thames Water must ensure that everything possible is done to prevent storm discharges from occurring.

"Thames Water have explained that the overflows in January were partly due to an increase in surface water following a period of heavy rainfall. This highlights the importance of the government’s recent decision in the Environmental Improvement Plan to require all new developments to implement Sustainable Drainage Systems.

"These drainage systems prevent rainwater from entering sewers, dramatically reducing the pressure on our sewage works at times of heavy rainfall. 

"Keeping the Loddon clean is crucial for Basingstoke and I will continue to closely monitor this issue by working with Thames Water, the Environment Agency and local action groups.’’

She added: "The river is at the centre of our local ecosystem. The Environment Agency (EA) have a duty to monitor the health of our river after concerns were raised almost two decades ago, driven by high levels of house building increasing pressure on the sewage works which uses the Loddon between Chineham and Old Basing to discharge treated wastewater.

“Monitoring the health of the river is done on a regular basis by EA environmental experts and the data is made public on their website.”

She said any unplanned discharge of sewage is “one too many” adding: “Now, because of a change in the law by this government, Thames Water must continue to work towards that number being zero.”

The MP urged borough councillors, when agreeing a new Local Plan, to take the environmental constraints set by the EN on Thames Water into account.

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“We already have one of the tightest possible permitting levels on discharges from Thames Water into the Loddon, and it is likely this will be tightened further this year to the lowest technologically possible,” she said, adding: “We cannot continue as we have done over the past 50 years when it comes to future levels of house building-the technology is not yet available to enable our local river to cope.

"Keeping the Loddon clean is crucial for the whole community because of it's importance to our local environment. I will continue to work with Thames Water, the Environment Agency and local action groups to help ensure our river network is properly protected as we work towards a cleaner, greener Basingstoke.’’

A Thames Water spokesperson said its shareholders have approved an addition £2billion to improve river health and leakages, to help reduce the total annual duration of discharges by 50 per cent by 2030.

They added: “We are absolutely committed to protecting and enhancing our rivers and the communities who love them, and we want to make discharges of diluted sewage unnecessary as quickly as possible.

“We are the first company to provide storm overflow alerts for inland waters and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website. We want to lead the way with this transparent approach to data and the alerts will be available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use.”