1MILLION CUBIC METRES OF RAW SEWAGE DUMPED INTO THAMES IN A WEEK

12.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 20th Jul 2005

Ahead of Mayor's Question Time later today (Wednesday), the London Assembly Liberal Democrats today reveal shocking new figures showing that more than 1 million cubic metres of raw sewage was pumped into the Thames during the storms at the end of June.

The new figures, revealed to Lib Dem Mike Tuffrey, show that between the 24th June and the 29th June 2005, 1,033,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage was dumped into the river due to the inability of London's sewers to cope with the storms that hit the capital in the last week in June.

Mike Tuffrey will call on the Mayor to lobby Ministers at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to stop stalling and reverse their decision to postpone the 'interceptor' tunnel, which would prevent the regular deluges of raw sewage into the Thames. The delay in building the tunnel has already increased estimated costs from £600m to £1.5bn.

The pumping of the sewage into the Thames led to a massive reduction in the oxygen levels in the river, which according to the Environment Agency, led to the death of some aquatic wildlife.

Mike Tuffrey said:-

"These figures are an absolute disgrace. Londoners are having to put up with huge amounts of sewage being pumped into the Thames every week. It is bad for the environment, bad for human health and bad for the image of our city.

"It is incredible that despite all the predictions that global warming would cause more violent storms and heavier downpours, London's sewer system is totally unprepared and unable to cope and pumping millions of tones of raw sewage into the Thames.

"The dumping of raw sewage into the Thames is something that happened in the Victorian era. It certainly should not be happening in the 21st century in one of the most developed capital city's in the world.

"There must be no more discussion, delay or dithering on building this interceptor tunnel. The longer Ministers drag their feet in making the inevitable decision to build the tunnel, the more this will ultimately cost the taxpayer to build."

ENDS

Notes to editor

Figures have been obtained from the Environment Agency and show that on the 24 June 2005 approximately 390,000 cubic metres of storm sewage was discharged into the Thames and a further 740,000 cubic metres of storm sewage into the river on the 28 June and 29 June. This makes a total of 1.033million cubic metres in a week.

Total discharge is for only 5 of the largest outfalls (Abbey Mills, Western, Lots Road, Hammersmith and Greenwich Pumping Stations)

• On Monday 4th October 2004, DEFRA published its final water pricing review and guidance and concluded:-

"2.5. The Government recognised in the Principal Guidance that the Thames Tideway needs further measures to address discharges. In the medium term, improvements to continuous waste water discharges from three sewage treatment works which discharge to the Thames to ensure compliance with statutory requirements under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive are to go ahead. In addition, there will be further schemes to improve water quality in the river and protect fish under the local schemes programme in the RIA (see paragraph 3.20).

2.6. With respect to intermittent discharges from combined sewer overflows to the Thames Tideway, the Principal Guidance noted that work was being carried out by Thames Water and the Environment Agency to inform decisions. While the proposed interceptor tunnel might still emerge as the most appropriate long-term solution, the Government has since decided that, bearing in mind the scale, the costs and the long implementation timescale, further consideration is necessary before decisions are reached. The Government has therefore asked Thames Water and the Environment Agency to undertake further work on the interceptor tunnel proposal and on other measures that might be alternative or additional. This further work is to include smaller-scale measures and those that could bring earlier improvements on intermittent discharges. Robustness of the system and emergencies"

• Thames Water spent £4million on a study, which revealed that the establishment of the interceptor tunnel would take about ten years to build and cost £1.5billion.