Wessex Water Streamclean Tackles Pollution

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Wessex Water Streamclean Tackles Pollution

A specialist team from Wessex Water is helping improve the environment in Bristol by tracing sources of watercourse pollution caused by drainage misconnections

The partnership proved so successful that in 2002 we decided to launch our own Streamclean Team.

Having a dedicated team of four across the Wessex Water region, we are able to trace the cause and reduce the risk of pollution from company assets.

A misconnection is the incorrect connection of a foul waste pipe into a surface water drain.

Larry Spiers, Streamclean co-ordinator explained "We carry out routine and reactive investigations of public surface water pipes and outfalls to reduce the risk of pollution to watercourses and bathing waters from misconnected domestic and commercial drainage.

Whilst misconnections aren't seasonal, during cold spells we often see an increase in oil. Oil pollution normally leads back to heating oil tanks that have just been filled and spills or overflows can find there way into the drains.

This may be caused by the lack of maintenance but on some occasions the oil has been deliberately disposed of into the drains."

When a misconnection is discovered we contact the home owner and explain our findings to them. We leave a survey form and a letter asking them for a correction to be made within 30 days or, if the misconnection is slightly trickier to correct, we may extend this time.

In 99% of cases the homeowner rectifies the plumbing. However, when the plumbing is not rectified we may need to notify the local environmental health office or Environment Agency to enforce action.

Wessex Water has shared our knowledge and experience with the UK water industry enabling national best practice for identifying and tackling misconnections.

The ConnectRight campaign is a collaboration between Water UK, EA, Consumer Council for Water, Defra, Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Source: Wessex Water

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