'Sewage pollution is killing our rivers'

Published date04 August 2022
Dr Christian Dunn said that water companies needed to invest to stop storm water being mixed in with sewage and the overwhelmed treatment works then spewing out sewage into places like the River Dee in Chester as a result

Dr Dunn was speaking in the light of news that a number of people who had been in the river around The Groves in recent weeks had been ill for 24 hours afterwards as a result.

He said that the infrastructure used to handle things like flooding was not capable of coping with our modern way of life, with water companies needing to invest in adapting to address this in future.

According to a sewage map created by the Rivers Trust, in 2021, Welsh

Water's sewer storm overflow at The Groves in Chester alone spilled 40 times for a total of 106 hours. Meanwhile, another Welsh Wateroperated sewer storm overflow located further down on Dee Lane spilled 78 times in 2021 for a total of 307 hours.

Another issue flagged up by Dr Dunn, who teaches wetland science at the University of Bangor in North Wales, was that pollution from sewage impacted on aquatic life in the river, in addition to being a danger to those using the river. He said there were concerns about pharmaceutical and illicit drugs and microplastics that could be found in sewage and the impact this could have on pollution in the river too.

He said: "A lot of the reason we have so much sewage entering rivers is that storm water waste is not separated from sewage so when there is a storm all the extra water hits the sewage and goes into the same treatment systems. The treatment systems can't cope.

"It should be separated. In many cases that is not happening and so that is the reason why sewage enters the river when it rains."

He said that a number of solutions could be implemented to help tackle these problems, flagging up the successful example of this as being the sustainable drainage systems used at the M&S superstore at Cheshire Oaks. At the store, ditches known as SUDs hold water when there is heavy rain and this water then slowly seeps down into the ground.

He said that these SUDs could even be retro-fitted around drains to try to prevent flooding. Another thing he would like to see more of is the use of permeable paving rather than concrete, whereby water could also seep back into the ground.

Dr Dunn said: "It's incredibly worrying when sewage is entering our rivers. It can devastate rivers and harm aquatic life and harm people as well.

"Sewage is absolutely horrendous when it comes...

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