Topic: help -flooding from local sewage plant

[Joym]

hi

I'm new to the message board but wondered if any of you could help with our problem. Last week the sewage plant that backs on to our allotments had a blockage and 11 of the plots ended up a six inches deep in the dirty water they pump out of the settling tanks.  It sounds grim and it smells pretty bad but is possibly not as bad as it seemed at first.  The water board have told us that in three weeks we won't know anything has happened but some people, understandably, are concerned about their plots. A friend who has worked for a water company tells me the crops should be Ok to eat if we wash them carefully (the bugs, e-coli included, will die if exposed to the sunlight). It sounds pretty horrible and I'm not sure I will eat all of it but at least it sounds better than it did on Saturday.  My question is does anybody have on tips on how to get things back to normal?  The ground is totally saturated but is relatively free draining should we just hose things off and wait for some sun.  Will the permanent plants ( fruit bushes etc )  be ok if they have had there roots in water for about 5 days?

Cheers

Mel
 Ps The water authority will not accept liability - it took them nearly 8 hours to get someone in to sort out the problem - but will give compensation. Seems a bit of a contradiction really.  The environment agency will take no action because the water did not hit the nearby drainage culverts.

[jennym]

The fruit bushes will be OK.
Personally, I wouldn't eat lettuce or anything else that's flimsy, but cabbage, root crops, beans, toms etc should be OK but just to make sure I would hose them down a couple of times at least and again wash once picked.

[Squirt]

I think the water board not accepting liability is a legal thing really.  If they actually say "it was all our fault" then any lawsuit against them they have pretty much automatically lost. They are basically covering their hides against  someone deciding that having their lettuce covered in poop has caused mental anguish and loss of earnings.   ;)

[wardy]

Sorry to hear of your bad news. I agree with what's been said about crops..I wonder though if they'd give you a bit of dosh to cover your losses as a good will jesture.  It wouldn't hurt them to maintain good neighbourly relations  :)

[Maddy]

I went to a meeting last year between the local community and Thames Water regarding the Lesnes sewage works (anyone who lives within about 5 miles will know all about the smell coming from there) and we were told by Thames Water that it had been made illegal to sue them!!!!!  I think you have to go to Ofwat and we were told to forget about compensation because it just doesn't happen.  

Sorry, but I have nothing positive to say on the matter.

Maddy

[daveandtara]

maddy, we know only too well about the lesnes sewerage works  >:(
they are a law unto themselves, last year they actually refused entry to environment agency officers when they came to do an inspection!
Tara xx

[Robert_Brenchley]

When I've been flooded before a lot of vegetable roots have been damaged by several days of waterlogging, and things have either died back or failed to grow properly. It probably depends on how long the soil was waterlogged for; it pools on my plot.

[Roy Bham UK]

Hmm! ::)

[Greenfingers Jo]

You can get copy of the discharge consent for the works fro the Environment Agency office that has been nominated for Public Register or rinf their National Contact Centre on 08708 506506. The consent probably has a conditions that says  something about amenity. As the plant was operating abnormally it will not have met its consent conditions.


As for the food crops, water companies can get rid of their sewage sludge, to farmer s[b]but the this is first treated to reduce E.Coli to less than 99% of its initial quantity usually by heating it. So leaving untreated sewage on your lottie is not acceptable[/b].


Treated sewage sludge can be used on fields to grow human consumption crops but they can not be sown until 10 months afterwards.
If the Agency can not do anything about the works, mention the Sludge (Use in Agriculture (Amendment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2002. The EA have the powers to enforce this legislation. 

[PREMTAL]

Hi Maddy,
                I know that English law differs from Scottish law but what Thames Water have said sounds like bullsh**ting of the highest order. >:(

These Companies seem to think that we are all mushrooms and fact feed us accordingly.

I would suggest that you have your soil tested  by The Environmental Health Office to determine wheather or not it has been contaminated by untreated sewage.

Untreated sewage as we are all aware is host to a multitude of contaminants which your crops will feed on.

Don't take their word as being law until it has been proved to be so.

I truly sympathise with your predicament, these Companies think that they are a law unto themselves. >:(

                                                      PREMTAL