NEWSDESK
A fatberg the weight of three double decker buses is unblocked
A fatberg, which was almost 6 ft tall and weighed the same as three double-decker buses, has successfully been removed from wet well near the iconic Abbey Mills pumping station, east London. The removal took several days to remove as it had built up 35 metres underground. James O’Donoghue, pumping stations operations manager at Abbey Mills, said: “It was an incredible feat to clear the fatberg, and involved people from all across Thames Water to plan and then execute its removal. “It was predominantly made up of silt and rag – unflushable items such as wet wipes, tampons and condoms – and shows the everyday challenges we face in keeping our sewers flowing. “A huge thank you and well done to everybody involved in the removal. We face this type of issue every day as we keep sewers flowing across London and the Thames Valley, and we’ve learnt a lot from this project. “Now it’s been removed, we can install final drainage pumps to ensure Abbey Mills and the North London Flood relief can operate to its full potential.” It took 11 days and a team of 20 people to remove the fatberg. Due to the size and the complexity of reaching it, rigorous safety controls were in place to make sure staff were as safe as possible. The operation to unblock included rehearsals, upstream monitoring, special permits, and dry weather working to mitigate health and safety risks. The “fatberg” removal follows the Government’s UK-wide ban on the sale of wet wipes containing plastic. Wet wipes and sanitary products, along with fats, oils and greases, are the prime cause of fatbergs clogging up the country’s sewers. If fatbergs aren’t
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from East London The clean-up operation took over 11 days and a team of 20 people
removed, they can lead to pollutions, toilets backing up and overflowing, and sewer collapses. The company’s long-running “Bin it,
don’t block it” education campaign encourages customers to only flush the three P’s down the toilet – pee, poo and toilet paper.
NADC News
The most exciting news this month has been the launch of the Drainage Apprenticeship Scheme which we have been working on with EU Skills for quite some time. We examine this more fully in a separate article.
We welcome into NADC membership the following contractors and suppliers:
• MK Drainage and Environmental LTD • First Choice Drainage Solutions Ltd • SW Builders & Drains2Flow • London & Essex Drains Ltd • Sandhurst Plumbing & Maintenance • Tecto Hire Ltd • J & M Drainage + CCTV Systems Ltd
We have been pleased with the take up of the Waste Site data function on the NADC App (powered by eviFile) which is available to members without having to sign up for
| June 2024 |
www.draintraderltd.com
the hydrant functionality. We continue to engage with those water companies that have not yet given us full access to their hydrant data and expect to achieve full coverage across the UK in coming months.
We are also engaging with several water companies in respect of their standpipe contracts in order that we can respond to future tenders with our smart standpipe solution. The long term objective remains for contractors to carry a single standpipe which they can use on any hydrant at a standard fee anywhere in England and Wales.
We are reviewing the first few weeks of the Wessex Water referral of their customers to the DrainSafe website, and looking at ways
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