Thanet nature expert Nik Mitchell runs the Wildlife Conservation in Thanet page on facebook
The dumping of raw sewage is something that heavily affects us all and the wider environment. Yes, the dumping of sewage is still happening.
With the up-coming Thanet district elections on May 4th I’d suggest it is worth looking out for candidates that want to protect our environment.
I wanted to take the time to show you that it’s not just our poop that’s still entering our seas and rivers -it also contains other very damaging “overlooked” pollutants.
Heavily polluted road run off
When it rains on our roads (and the increasing number of driveways) the rain is washed into the combined sewage system and often it has a direct discharge to a local stream or straight to the sea, with no pollution control devices at all.
The road runoff contains a cocktail of pollutants such as toxic hydrocarbons, pollutants from oil spills, tyre and brake wear of vehicles (one of the biggest contributors to microplastic in our waters is from car tyres). Runoff can carry over 300 different pollutants which can cause damage both in the short and longer term.
A lot of that roadside litter ends up in our waters that way too, we even have whole cats eyes (road studs) washing up. With all the developing happening in Thanet this is set to get a lot worse.
This heavily polluted road run-off is possibly more threatening to the environment than what goes down our toilet.
Chemicals
Have you noticed on those bottles kept under your sink the “COSHH” symbols that state how the products are corrosive and dangerous to the environment? Yep, that’s going straight into the environment unfiltered.
Plastic sanitary products
On our coastal litter pics we find thousands upon thousands of earbuds, sanitary towels, floss harps, tampon applicators, plasters, pill packets, condom wrappers, baby wipes, even false teeth and much more is regularly washing up on our beaches. We know that most plastics take well over 500 years to break down and become equally dangerous microplastics in our waters.
It is harmful to our wildlife in so many ways in particularly ingestion and entanglement. It’s caring members of the community that pick it off the beach not Southern Water!
Pollution in our waters is “out of sight out of mind” but it is a real problem and we should be putting a stop to it. Is happening and it’s happening in the name of pure profit.
- In 2022, raw sewage was pumped into rivers and seas for 1.75 million hours last year – on average 825 times per day
- The Environment Agency found that 90% of sewage monitors were broken
- There was recently £235 million in cuts to environmental funding. That included a £24 million cut to monitoring services (since those cuts raw sewage spills have doubled)
- And it’s worth mentioning that our South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay voted for a ‘compromise’ Environment Bill stripping out seven crucial lines from the Duke of Wellington’s House of Lords amendment before passing it. I, and many others, have criticised this watering down of the amendment for allowing sewage dumping to continue for another 15 years.
- Today, after 12.30pm, has been set aside for opposition day debates – Commons debates on a Labour motion. Labour has tabled a motion that would allow it to take control of Commons business one day next month to pass a water quality (sewage discharge) bill.
