This story has got headlines: A hazardous waste disposal company called Red Industries has discharged cyanide into the River Trent. Thousands of fish have been killed, and Severn Trent has made valiant efforts to pump oxygen into the water to get it back to health. As far as I understand it, the cyanide meant sewage treatment didn’t work, so not only cyanide but also raw sewage was pumped in great quantities into the river. It’s not clear whether the fish died of poisoning or suffocation from oxygen deprivation (too much sewage can upset the balance of water and suck the life out of it). Either way it is a horrifying and sad story, and it got headlines because thankfully it doesn’t happen very often. But there are some unanswered questions. I’ve been told again and again by wastewater industry people that hazardous waste doesn’t go into the sewer system without proper permits. But this happened with permits.
Meanwhile, the European Commission will prosecute Thames Water for sewage overflows into the Thames. As happens every summer, and every week, actually, raw sewage is discharged when the volume gets too much and it has nowhere else to go. But the EC says that the overflows are “too frequent and in excessive quantities.” Take mid-July: days after 200,000 tons of raw sewage were tipped into the Thames at Kew, killing fish, 900,000 more tons were discharged, Thames Water’s reasoning is the usual: This is better than sewage in basements. But it is expanding its works at Mogden, which members of the Mogden residents’ action group will love, and also building a super-sewer under the Thames. As for reducing the volume of stuff going into the sewer, or any talk of more permeable ground, green roofs or other solutions more sustainable than a stunningly expensive sewer, not a word was spoken.