Thousands of fish dead after Thames sewerage overflow

John Vidal -

Pollution teams on Thursday were still clearing up the Thames in west London four days after 450,000 tonnes of raw household and industrial sewage overflowed into the river.

The incident, which occurred after nearly 30mm of rain fell in a few hours on Sunday, killed tens of thousands of fish and left condoms, faeces and other pollution on riverbanks.

There are fears that a similar incident could mar the Queen's Jubilee celebrations next June when 1,000 ships from around the world will travel with the Queen as she makes her way down the river in a new royal barge to celebrate 60 years on the throne. The chances of the Royal procession having to make its way through a tide of pollution is considered "very unlikely but conceivable", according to sources in the Environment Agency.

There are on average more than 60 significant sewerage incidents a year in the river, with major ones becoming more frequent. Heavy rains after dry spells left the river massively polluted in both 2004 and 2009.

In the latest incident, 250,000 tonnes of storm sewage overflowed into the river from drains and a further 200,000 tonnes from the Mogden sewage treatment works in Isleworth. In response, the agency has spent four days pumping oxygen and hydrogen peroxide into the water to try to build back its health.

"This was a very big incident. Much of south-east England could be affected because the tidal Thames is a vital fish nursery for the whole region. There were a lot of juvenile flounders killed, who use the river as a nursery ground. Roach, dace, bream, eels, perch, pike, sea bass and flounder were all killed," said Angling trust's chief executive, Mark Lloyd.

Full story...

Posted via http://batavia08.posterous.com batavia08's posterous