Thames Water removes 100-tonne fatberg from west London sewer | Environment

A team of water engineers spent a month exploding and waxing a 100 -ton fatberg bulk under the streets of western London.

The blocking composed mainly of damp wipes glued together by fat, oil and frozen fat, was the mass equivalent of eight doublecker buses, stuck at 10 meters below the level of the street.

Thames Water has disseminated details on the gigantic cleaning work to mark a national campaign of a month to raise awareness of the way in which the substances and overturned elements affect our rivers, our seas and a wider environment.

This occurs while the creditors of Thames Water ask the regulator of the water industry, ofwat, up to 15 years of leniency of the rules on pollution of the sailors of England, arguing that it would be impossible for the company to make improvements through London and the south-east of England more quickly due to the necessary work scale after years of negligence. The Water Thames has been paralyzed by huge debts accumulated for more than two decades by owners who have been criticized for having paid dividends without investing enough in its fake pipes and defective treatment work.

Fatberg are formed when oil, fat and fat have been poured for drains combine with non-biodegradable items such as damp wipes, nappies and cotton nipples. If they are left to develop, they can cause floods and general effluent pollution when the sewers retreat.

It was after such an incident that the investigators discovered the last Fatberg 10 meters below the streets of Feltham. It was mainly composed of wet wipes, compacted in a fibrous and gelatinous mass blocking the flow through a major drain pipe under the neighborhood.

Engineers specializing in protective equipment have entered the sewers in a safety cage with two people lowered in a maintenance hole room measuring 3 meters in diameter. By working deeply underground, they used choices, shovels and high pressure pipes to dislodge the accumulation vile from 125 meters of sewer labor, before it was sucked on the surface and transported by truck for elimination on a landfill site as toxic waste.

“The authorization of this Fatberg was extremely complex for our team of engineers,” said Alexander Dudfield, head of the network protection commitment to Thames Water.

“But while some blockages in our biggest sewers can weigh up to 25 elephants, we must not forget that most blockages occur in local pipes – often narrower than a mobile phone and generally caused by a few households.

“When these pipes are blocked, we cannot just turn off wastewater. He gets back and has to go out somewhere, whether roads, rivers or even people’s houses.

“The consequences can be devastating.”

Thames Water says that it spends 18 million sterling pounds of 3.8 billion wipes of its network each year. Until now this year, the company has said that it has authorized 28,899 blockages of rags, which were mainly made up of wet wipes; 14,810 blockages of fat, oil and fat; and 686 third -party blockages, composed of concrete and other sewer blocking materials.

Feltham Fatberg’s fiasco has followed a recent government announcement that it would present legislation forbidding damp wipes containing plastic. But some problems remain more obstinate: a recent survey has revealed that 48% of British still pay fats, oils and fats.