A new map showing the amount of sewage discharged into rivers has revealed that an overflow lasting more than 90 hours has taken place in the River Misbourne – and is still ongoing at the time of writing.
This was the second overflow to be reported in the local area on Thames Water’s new map. Just two days after the map’s launch, a sewage discharge at the Gerrards Cross treatment plant lasted from 7.30am on January 4 to 12.15am on January 5, a total of 16 hours and 45 minutes.
The River Misbourne passes through Gerrards Cross, Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter.
Commentors including BBC correspondent Paul Murphy and Paul Jennings, chairman of the River Chess Association, have praised the map.
Commenting on the readings from the map on Twitter, Mr Jennings said: “Not the best day to launch your live sewage discharge map, but we encourage the openness. Let’s work on getting that map consistently green.”
A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We have decided to provide close to real-time information about storm discharges from all of our 468 permitted locations. This is a key part of our River Health Action Plan to radically improve both performance and transparency in order to protect and improve the environment.
“We are absolutely committed to protecting and enhancing our rivers and the communities who love them, and we want to make these discharges of diluted sewage unnecessary as quickly as possible. We want to lead the way with this transparent approach and the alerts will be available through an open data platform for third parties.
“Of course, what matters most is stopping the need for the discharges. Our shareholders have recently approved a business plan that sees us spending an additional £2billion beyond what our customers are funding so we can improve outcomes for customers, leakage and river health.
“We have started the £100 million upgrade of our Mogden sewage treatment works and are increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works, to be completed by 2025.
“We have a long way to go – and we certainly can’t do it on our own
Image: Timo Newton-Syms
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