Wildlife Circus

  Thames Water have 56 days to pay £4,000,000 + £84, 646 costs for the sewage spill that took place at the Green Lane Recreation Ground during 2016, as announced by the Judge at Aylesbury Crown Court this afternoon. see here Hogsmill sewage leak Although Thames Water pleaded guilty to this offence in 2019, it has taken - 2 years - to appear in the court lists. In addition, Thames Water asked for 4 TIC's (offences to be taken into consideration). See these incidents below and links to the blog posts: 8th February 2016 - pertains to the pollution of Green Lane Recreation Ground; 27th January 2018 - spillage of stored sewage sludge 14-16th October 2018 Sewage-spill-green-lane-recreation.html and linked incident 24.10.18 25th September 2019 G r een-lane-sewage-spill 30 personnel were required to remove 2,500 bags of waste from the Green Lane recreation ground, New Malden; the public amenity remained closed for almost one month (photo above) after the Tunnel Sewer (Worcester Park-Gre...

                                                       Nitrate top score   Last weekend was the annual Waterblitz co-ordinated by the Earthwatch Institute's Freshwater watch. Volunteers head out with testing kits over the same long weekend so that all the data points are comparable to the next.The data goes to a central database so that researchers can identify areas for further investigation. Nitrates and Phosphates are tested at 5 sample sites and I usually choose the same ones. The confluence of the Bonesgate and the Hogsmill has had phosphate levels and the two sites below the Hogsmill Sewage works always has high nitrate readings.     Sample site three is just above  confluence of the Tolwort...

  Thames Water have done it again. There has been a significant sewage spill covering a very large area of ground. The fence warns us 'danger electricity', but not of the sewage that has recently spewed all over the recreation ground-from the surcharged tunnel of cess -all the way from Worcester Park. This is in fact, a repeat performance of the public health and natural disaster of February, 2016.     A sog  of raw stinking sewage meanders through scrub creating grey rivulets in many places, especially  towards lower ground  leading to the river. Further along a secondary footpath to the woods, raw sewage remains pooled and ecoliferous. Thames Water have set up a Heras fence cordon and attempted to clean up the site, albeit very poorly, with rag still littered around the public park. This is clearly a large scale pollution event, affecting land right up to the river. Thames Water have a duty of care to warn the public of the danger;  pa...

Earlier this year a group of us met with the council to discuss a site for a new community orchard. Of two sites - we have chosen one far removed from underground pipework - and offering some welcome shading to help conserve water - an important consideration for new trees in our changing climate. In the summer,  we measured up the 180 square metre plot at Green Lane Recreation Ground.....     and this week we joined forces with Lewis, from the Orchard Project to choose our design with plenty of mouth-watering varieties including: cherry, plum, pear and apple; as well as some to the more traditional fruits medlar, mulberry and greengage. Fringed  by a border of white, red and blackcurrants and blackberries-how does that sound? The next event will be an orchard training day in November where we hone pruning an grafting skills before a final planting date a month later. Short video explanation of pollination and grafting  Radio 4 Food programme on cide...

Nitrates 10 and Phosphates 0.5 The second Water Blitz of the year - coordinated by EarthWatch - was undertaken during 2.10.17, at locations along the Hogsmill river similar  to those of the May Blitz. Starting with Knights Park TQ18536872, the nitrate level was high - scoring 10 in the sample tubes from the kits that are issued to us. All sites went on to score 10 for nitrates unless otherwise stated. Hogsmill SW outfall   Just below the outfall at the Hogsmill Sewage Works TQ19156857, phosphate levels were the lowest of the survey at 0.1. Is this the result of phosphate stripping? The highest phosphate level was achieved at the Channel of Cess (CoC), the small stream entering the Hogsmill at TQ19866831. Sewage fungus   In addition to the highest (therefore the worst of the chemical readings) there was a strong odour, milky colouration, sewage fungus and fresh rag lined the channel. This type of chronic pollution can be  reported to the Environment Agenc...

Number to ring in the case of pollution Rag or sewage around  trees  The following item will be of most interest to pollution volunteers or PAV's, those who volunteer along the Hogsmill river - either collecting the rubbish, monitoring water quality and the amount of 'rag' at misconnected outfalls - and to some of you that may be considering any of these activities in the future (see previous posts and side tabs on the Hogsmill). During the early hours of 8.2.16, there was a major sewage spill onto Green Lane recreation ground some of which ended up in the Hogsmill river Grid Reference TQ 20062 67989. This was covered during a February posting hogsmill-sewage-spill and in the Surrey Comet.“What appears to have happened is that a power failure at our Hogsmill treatment works, in the early hours of 8th February, put the inlet pumping station out of action. This, combined with a burst of very heavy rain earlier that night, caused incoming flows to back up and di...