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Decentralised Wastewater Systems
The TRUTH about our Sewerage Systems
'Pollutants In 2007, sewage was the most common pollutant, found at 15 per cent of serious incidents. This is not surprising given that the sewage and water industry caused the most incidents. Also common were waste materials, namely asbestos, household rubbish and vehicle parts.' In 2007, the sewage and water industry caused 19% of serious (category 1 and 2) water pollution incidents. Farming, which is often slated by the press for water pollution, occupies over 80% of the UK landmass and is subject to strict controls, caused only 12%.
Between 2004 and 2008, water companies in England and Wales were prosecuted 342 times for serious pollution offences, said the E.A. watchdog. We trust the Water Companies to safeguard our rivers - it is their responsibility, paid for by us through our sewage rates - and they are failing us all.
The Water Companies are fined on a regular basis (but not enough) because the infrastructure is not coping. Now Britain faces having to £ MILLIONS in fines to the European Union plus spend £ BILLIONS to avoid future fines! Take a look at these appalling records: Sewage Pollution affects over half of UK Beaches http://www.web4water.com/news/news_story.asp?id=17119 http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/news/106668.aspx http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/4514096.Rowers_up_in_oars_at_sewage_dump/ http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/109398.aspx?page=1&month=7&year=2009 http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/86498.aspx?page=4&month=8&year=2008 http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/110026.aspx http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/hampshire/7594422.stm And these are just some of them. To list them all would require an entire website. It would take thousands of single house sewage system failures - at the same time - to produce this amount of pollution.
Over ten billion litres of sewage are produced every day in England and Wales. To treat this volume of sewage requires approximately 2,800 GWh of energy in 2006/07, equating to 1.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The electricity demand required to treat sewage is expected to increase in the future as the population grows, we adapt to climate change and continue to deliver environmental improvements. It is time that we all started to re-evaluate the sense - or lack of it - in centralising all sewage treatment - Just imagine if the only effluent leaving every property was clean water with a ZERO carbon footprint? |
One of the big problems is that towns and villages have grown massively in the last 20 years, with housing estates and smaller developments mushrooming on both brownfield and greenfield sites. This increase in sewage production, is rarely matched by a corresponding upgrade of the municipal sewage works, resulting in overloading and pollution problems. Wet weather makes it dramatically worse as raw sewage is discharged into storm drains - which discharge into rivers - as a coping mechanism. The Water Companies do not have the resources to upgrade surface and sewage drains and works every time a new planning permission is granted and the Planning Departments hardly ever enforce it as a requirement.
If every new house treated its own sewage, discharging only clean water to the surface water drains, then this problem would be eliminated.
The UK Water Companies produce over 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. An acre of woodland absorbs 2.6 tonnes per year. If the UK adopted non-electric, decentralised sewage treatment it would save the equivalent of 653,846 acres of woodland (nearly 50 times the size of The New Forest!) CO2 absorbtion capacity.
Bacteria in sewage
| Pathogen | Disease Associated |
| Campylobacter | Gastroenteritis |
| Chlostridium Botulinis | Botulism |
| Certain Coliforms | Diarrhoea & Blood Poisoning |
| E.Coli-0157 | Gastroenteritis & Renal Failure |
| Leptospira | Leptospirosis (Weill's Disease) |
| Proteus types | Diarrhoea |
| Psuedomonas | Localised Infection |
| Salmonella Typhi | Typhoid & other enteric fevers |
| Other Salmonella serotypes | Food Poisoning Symptoms |
| Shigella (various) | Bacterial Dysentery |
| Tubercle bacilli | Tubercolosis |
| Yersinia enterococci | Gastroenteritis |
Viral Pathogens in sewage
| Pathogen | Disease Associated |
| Adenovirus | Acute Haemorrhagic Cystitis |
| Cocksackie | Aseptic Meningitis |
| Echovirus | Aseptic Meningitis |
| Epidemic Gastroenteritis B | Gasroenteritis |
| Infectious Hepatitis | Liver Inflammation |
| Norwalkvirus | Gastroenteritis |
| Poliovirus | Poliomyelitis & Meningitis |
| Small Round Viruses (SRV's) | Gastroenteritis |
Parasites in sewage
| Parasite | Disease Associated |
| Balantidium Coli | Balantidial Dysentary |
| Cryptosporidium | Epidemic Diarrhoea |
| Entamoeba Histolyticad | Amoebic Dysentary |
| Giardia Lamblia | Diarrhoea |
| Intestinal Flukes | Intestinal Infections |
| Isopora hominus | Coccidosis |
| Liver Flukes | Liver infection |
| Pinworm (eggs) | Ascariasis |
| Tapeworms | Tapeworm infestation |
Decentralised sewage treatment is the only way to ensure that our beaches remain clean.