David Walliams vs. raw sewage in Thames.

[TF_squatt]

Quoted from a news story off Yahoo:

Comedian David Walliams will press ahead with his attempt to swim the full length of the Thames despite news that half a million cubic metres of sewage has entered the river in the past week.

The Little Britain star has already battled with a bout of “Thames tummy” from swallowing the river water as he aims to cover 140 miles in eight days.

Thames Water has contacted his team to inform them of the stomach-churning amount of sewage in the water.

Richard Aylard from the water board said: “We’ve been in touch with David Walliams’ team and he’ll have to make his own decisions. We’re not public health experts but I wouldn’t recommend swimming in it. That said, David is doing a hugely admirable thing and we wish him all the best.”

Does raw sewage enter the river often and why????

[TF_toro]

bloody disgusting in2011 this should never happen raw sewage in a major river or any river is not on things must be done to prevent this if we all joined the angling trust maybe something would be done to stop this

[TF_proper tidal boy]

squatt the crap is held back for a period of time until the first large downpour and then under a cloud of evassive comments it miracoulsly gets discharged into the thames under a guise the treatment works at MOGDEN COULDNT HANDLE THE DELUGE normally during the night on the out tide so as no debris is found hanging from the vegetation on the banks of sunny richmond town FACTS OVER A LARGE AMOUNT OF YEARS ??? bit like the profits from thames water leaving our shores ????

[TF_FBlues]

Factually, proper tidal boy is wrong, nothing is held back. When enough rain fills the sewers the storage facilities at Mogden (where most of it goes in, up to 65 times a year, up to 35,000,000,000 litres (yes, that is 9 x 0s, ie billions) the mixture is then pumped, not escapes, into the river because there is not enough capacity to treat it. Work is under way to make the system capable of handling the capacity reached NOW by 2014. By 2014 no one knows what the required capacity will be. The Thames Interceptor Tunnel, which would cure the problem, is being fought at every turn by residents of riverside boroughs, notably Hammersmith and Fulham, who would rather shit, condoms and sanitary towels in the river than inconvenience while it is being dug. That’s fact.

The BIG issue it that MOST of the river is ONLY treated effluent, drunk 7 times before it reaches me. You should see the amount pumped OUT at Hampton, Laleham etc etc every minute of every day. The flow at Teddington Weir is, on average, less than 10% of what it was 50 years ago. That’s fact too and is another reason why we need the Angling Trust who are pressuring the Government to work within the Water Framework Directive but who just announce that ’10 rivers are excellent that used to be dead or close’. One of those rivers, the very Thames we speak of, is also listed amongst the WORST in almost every other category.

Anyone swimming in the Thames wants examining physically and medically afterwards – but psychologically before, in my opinion.

[TF_proper tidal boy]

f blues all that crap just happens to appear when we have a downpour,???? get real for once they stock pile for a rainey day ???? oh isnt that where i used to fish opposite the pipes so ive seen the discharge first hand not via a youtube blog FACT

[TF_FBlues]

Sorry proper tidal boy, you are wrong. The ‘storage’ are tanks that are there to take overload, NO sewage is stored. Ask your mate Mushroom, he’s done the tour. The sewage that is in the sewers when heavy rain falls goes into the storage tanks, along with the rain which, don’t forget, goes through the sewage system through the drains. Once the tanks are full they have to be emptied and if there is insufficient capacity within the treatment works, it is discharged into the Thames. That is what you see and it isn’t stored, it is pumped. Some pumpings have little effect but the big one we had this year and the one in 2005 were far worse than usual because the long, dry spell preceding them meant that larger than usual amounts of sewage were within the sewers, NOT the tanks, as there had been little or no rain get them flowing, so sewage had been ‘stored’ for want of a better word within the sewers by the weather. It’s Victorian in design and construction, don’t forget. Richard Aylard has been on my case several times to ‘take the tour’ but I don’t need to see the excuses, I just want to see the shit stopped.

Trust me, I have documentation several reams long to confirm it, not just speculation. I have had to retract statements I have made publicly because of it.

[TF_MICK THE BOOKIE]

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: It`s all aload of “crap” as well we know……”MONEY….MONEY….MONEY…..IT AINT FUNNY…..ITS A RICH MANS WORLD”.
The whole system needs a massive renewal.Where will all the money come from?……And as Keith has said,the major upheaval to our roads would cost fortunes and cause chaos.There aint going to be no “knight in shining armour” putting his hand in his pocket,so the buck keeps on passing and we will suffer on in silence as usual. 😡 😡 😡 😡 .
p.s….I expect the good old “Angling Trust” will take some of the blame as per.They,the powers to be,always pick on the skint underdog who cant fight back. 🙁 🙁 🙁

[TF_proper tidal boy]

Kieth to keep the FACTS correct ive met mushroom once so i dont think that makes him a mate ???oh i did leave two messages on his phone in the early days when he first started his campaign which he didnt reply too ???As for the crap coming out of the pipes it wasnt treated sewage it was raw and very smelly on my line ??????so to put this thread back on course if the swimmer comes out at the london eye tonite with a thames trout hanging from his wet suit,, the press will say how clean the thames is now but we both know what a thames trout is kieth 😀 😀 YES A USED JOHNNY

[TF_Irk the purists]

The Ribble in Preston is getting a full storm water storage tunnel for a measly £114m…. work has been ongoing for a couple of years at least with more holes than Blackburn Lancashire…..

Yet to be finished it’s design to do exactly what FB’s is suggested is required for the Thames, when floods come the sewage from Fishergate, Watery Lane and Marsh Lane are diverted into the storm drains, held back and then pumped to the treatment works when the storm passes.

Leaving the world with sewage free shrimps to be purchased from Lanigans of Lytham at £3.80 per 100grms

Goodness know’s what the cost and disruption would be to recreate a similar project in the smoke…

:confused:

[TF_ubat]

Fair play to him, one good thing is that it highlights the state of the waterway.

Sadly, it is not just the sewage that finds its way into the river.

[TF_FBlues]

Irk the purists: the Thames Tideway Tunnel runs up a bit more than that (£1.2bn first estimate, now times 3) but the only works will be at the start and end, both on Thames Water owned sites, plus some other sites where vents will have to be built. Estimated time-scales for the intrusive works will be measured in weeks. The residents are complaining about anything they can: siting of the vents, construction work and so on basically a NIMBY situation. They obviously don’t mind the sewage. I have said that if they manage to get the scheme abandoned I will personally hire a cesspit tanker and deliver an effluent sample to the waterfront, by the River Cafe would be nice, to highlight the real issue. The actual tunnel will run under the river itself so, like the Channel Tunnel, exterior works aren’t an issue except for the vents. It will carry the stormwater effluent directly to Beckton Works where there is capacity. A similar scheme for the River Lea is already underway, I believe. Just by coincidence, the Lea is the waterway beside the Olympic Park…

Sorry about the Mushroom link propertidalboy, I honestly thought you were better acquainted. I think I’ve only met him 3 or 4 times but we do have e- and phone contact. Anyway, he’s done the tour and knows the score.

[TF_scarf]

David Walliams has done anglers a favour by highlighting the amount of raw sewage going int the nation’s most well known river. Pity he had to suffer in doing so. After swimming the English Channel and the Straights of Gibraltar without a problem he needs to take antibiotics to swim in the Thames.
It should be a perfect opportunity for the Angling Trust to raise the issue, and its profile, in the media. I don’t think many ordinary citizens had any idea how much filth was going into what is often thought to be clean river. Even now the impression given is that it is only as a result of recent heavy rains that the sewage has gone in – not that it happens regularly.

[TF_FBlues]

It’s been front page of many national papers and I’ve done several TV news items about it for both BBC and ITV local news as well as radio. It does only happen at times of ‘exceptional’ rainfall but that can be as little as 2mm at the wrong time. I am 100% convinced that not every single flush-out is unavoidable but that is difficult to prove. I found one chap that used to work at the worst-offending site – Mogden in Isleworth, which I drive close to a couple of times each week – and he said he never allowed it to happen ‘on his watch’ unless it really was essential.

The excuse is that if they don’t do it, sewage will back up into the streets of west London and that can’t be allowed to occur. I asked how many times that had happened and, of course, it never has because, a bit like rain hitting a river, as soon as it falls, they open all the gates.

On average there are 65 discharges each year. Many go un-noticed because there is sufficient flow on the river to thin it out – or there used to be. Now there is less and less flow each year and the river gets shallower and siltier downstream of Richmond half-lock. You may recall a young lad being drowned a few weeks back? Well, in that event there were accidents where canoeists ‘shot’ the weir and holed their craft on the rocks beneath. My mate had walked across the river two weeks previously in waders and close to the Isleworth discharge point this once-mighty river is often less than 15m wide at low tide.

Up to 35m tonnes each and every year of untreated sewage isn’t great is it? Yet the Thames is cited as an example of how clean rivers can be, itself a lie because salmon are used as an example and no salmon have bred in the river for centuries; those that used to be caught had been stocked as smolts – I know because I’ve caught enough of them!

[TF_Natefx]

I read in a book regarding the Thames that it was one of the cleanest ‘urban’ rivers in the world.
nathan
http://nate-fish4thought.blogspot.com/

[TF_squatt]

Thanks for all the replies. I had no idea and I will read up on this now.

[TF_proper tidal boy]

@Natefx wrote:

I read in a book regarding the Thames that it was one of the cleanest ‘urban’ rivers in the world.
nathan
http://nate-fish4thought.blogspot.com/

obviously the reporter hasnt done any research lately ????????

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