NEW LONDON MINISTER MUST TACKLE THAMES RAW SEWAGE

10.25.49am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 10th Jun 2005

On the day that the new Minister for London, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, takes part in a photo opportunity to help clean up the Thames of rubbish, Liberal Democrats at the London Assembly have today renewed their call for the Government to build an 'interceptor tunnel' to stop the millions of litres of raw sewage being pumped in to the river.

Figures revealed earlier this year by London Assembly Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the environment, Mike Tuffrey, shows that more than 240 million cubic metres of raw sewage were pumped into the Thames in the last four years.

The European Union is also investigating whether the pumping of raw sewage into the Thames breaches urban waste water treatment directives.

Mike Tuffrey today called on the new Minister for London to lobby his colleagues at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to reverse their decision to postpone the 'interceptor' tunnel that would prevent the need for raw sewage to be regularly pumped into the Thames. Over the last fifteen years Thames clear up costs have cost more than £1billion.

Mike Tuffrey said:-

"I very much hope that the new London Minister commitment to cleaning up the Thames extends beyond just a photo opportunity. Rather than just demonstrating his commitment by taking part in a quick media stunt, Mr Fitzpatrick should tell his Government colleagues of the need to build the interceptor tunnel to stop the billions of litres of raw sewage being pumped into the Thames.

"So much sewage being pumped into the Thames is bad for the environment, bad for human health and bad for the image of both the Thames and London.

"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 cities 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 and more raw sewage will be pumped into the Thames."

ENDS

Notes to editor

· The new Minister for London, Jim Fitzpatrick will join 50 volunteers from the Government Office for London on Friday morning at the Thames foreshore, near Vauxhall, south London.

· The EU is currently investigating whether the UK is failing to fulfill its obligations under Article 3(1) and Annex IA and Articles 5(2), 5(3), 10 and Annex I.B of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment.

The quote and table below is taken from Hansard 15 Dec 2004 : Column 1112W

"The Table below sets out the monthly calculated volumes of untreated sewage discharged to the Thames from the five largest pumping stations during wet weather. As no data is available for the other overflows along the Thames Tideway, it is estimated that on average these volumes represent 60 per cent. of the total discharge from London's combined drainage system at these times. "

Month 2001 2002 2003 2004

January 3,471,000 3,009,000 12,954,000 9,281,000

February 9,279,000 4,746,000 3,759,000 3,240,000

March 8,118,000 2,761,000 743,000 44,000

April 2,688,000 2,662,000 395,000 3,665,000

May 2,322,000 2,007,000 543,000 3,268,000

June 1,757,000 3,353,000 950,000 3,047,000

July 1,742,000 1,962,000 1,124,000 1,260,000

August 4,490,000 4,017,000 438,000 4,945,000

September 2,261,000 563,000 577,000 446,000

October 6,312,000 3,961,000 2,600,000 4,290,000

November 2,400,000 12,144,000 11,072,000 304,000

December 1,096,000 11,755,000 6,064,000 n/a

This gives a total for the 5 largest pumping of 173,885,000 cubic metres discharged between Jan '01 - Nov '04. Ministers estimate this makes up 60% of untreated sewage going into the Thames and comes from the 5 largest pumping stations at Beckton, Crossness, Long Reach, Mogden and Riverside. Therefore the total raw sewage discharge for the Thames equals 243,439,000 cubic metres. A cubic metre is equal to 1,000 litres. Therefore 243,439,000,000 litres of raw sewage has been discharged into the Thames since January 2001

• On Monday 4th October 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.