Sewage in sea and rivers.

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Swinglowandslow

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How is the amount of water going into the drains causing the problem.? On TV there is a piece saying that we now have too much water causing the problem?
How long before we have hose pipe ban?
Any expert here able to explain the problem- or is it just policy and profits?
 
Swinglowandslow said:
How is the amount of water going into the drains causing the problem.? On TV there is a piece saying that we now have too much water causing the problem?
How long before we have hose pipe ban?
Any expert here able to explain the problem- or is it just policy and profits?
Click to expand...

No expert, but part of the issue is the amount of hardstanding for cars that used to be front gardens; instead of soaking away via the gardens it now runs off into the drainage systems.

I've heard that our move away from being an industrial nation has also caused issues; the industry that used to use water no longer so doing means that the water table is rising. Whether or not that is a factor I don't know.
 
A lot of the drains, water treatment works were put in 30-50 yrs ago and with modern house building plus other reasons BiM has mentioned, the drainage systems are not able to cope with the sheer amount of waste water going in to it.
 
Had problems all year with Southern water discharging into the sea, they shrug their shoulders and pay the fine. Local MPs seem powerless.
Real worry with even more housing going up
 
50 plus years of under investment, Victorian sewers, more extreme weather events, new estates being built without increasing infrastructure, fatbergs

It’s a mix of all and more,
It rains large, sewers fill up, rivers fill up, pipes back up, stuff overflows, blame gravity
 
My son is specialising in this area for his masters. I'm hoping he will be okay for a job by the end of it ?.

The problem? More houses pushing more water into existing sewerage, more green areas concreted over meaning increased run off.
 
They've been building estates on flood plain around here for years and the amount of space given over to drainage - it's like LA's storm drains but on a smaller scale...
Of course that water can't seep into the fields because its all concrete, roads and houses.
 
PhilTheFragger said:
50 plus years of under investment, Victorian sewers, more extreme weather events, new estates being built without increasing infrastructure, fatbergs

It’s a mix of all and more,
It rains large, sewers fill up, rivers fill up, pipes back up, stuff overflows, blame gravity
Click to expand...

Bit harsh on the Victorians' sewers Fragger; considering that they were only designed to be driven over by horse & cart, they've lasted bloody well given the hammering they now take from HGV's. Spot on re the under investment though.

Add disposable nappies to the list of suspects as well.
 
More houses, more roads, more hardstanding etc means less natural absorbtion. Less, trees, less grass, less soft landscape, more intensive agriculture, all mean the same. And it now rains with greater intensity, (and seemingly more frequently) than has been the case in the past. All of which means that during intense rain, more water goes into the drainage system than the drains, and the treatment plants, can cope with. So the excess is vented into rivers and watercourses. Wouldn't be a problem if it was only the excess storm water that was vented, but we have combined foul & surface-water systems. Therefore, turds go in rivers as well.
(Edit. Took out the agriculture bit. That doesn't really contibute to sewerage in rivers problem. Although it does to the general flooding problem).
 
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In Kent, and a few other areas around the country we have what is called her "the Stodmarsh issue". Stodmarsh is a narture reserve/ wetland and England Nature have threatened to take to court any council who pass any planning applications for housing where the sewage waste is possible to enter the River Stour until a solution to the amount of phosphates and nitrates entering the river are nullified. Apparently the reserve is seeing vegetation in the wetland reserve growing at a high rate which is considered to be adversely affecting the burd population.

Three councils in the are have been unable to pass new planning applications for housing for about a year now and it's still ongoing and mightily costly to developers etc. I cant get over though the fact that water companies have released sewage into rivers 400,000 times in the past year (probably a 2019 number) and Southern water is always dumping sewage into the sea around the Kent area. Also, I have seen no improvements to the sewage plant in many a year despite the town I live in being designated a growth town for the last 50 years.
 
backwoodsman said:
Sort of ...
It's more like overpopulation/over-development in relation to available infrastructure. Think back to historical times when we just dunked stuff straight into the rivers. Much smaller population - but even less (no?) infrastructure.
Click to expand...
We're dumping massive amounts into the rivers and sea now because we can't deal with the volume.

We are building houses all over the place at the moment with no consideration to the support infrastructure.
 
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