Disgusting discovery outside attraction shows fatberg problem

Officials at Severn Trent have said they have had to spend GBP300,000 to unplug ‘fatberg’ blockages in the region’s sewers. Matt Lewis, one of the private water manager’s operations business leads, says businesses and households not properly managing their excess grease, including not draining plates and utensils down the sink after Sunday dinners, is the firm’s “biggest problem”. He also revealed during a visit to Spondon’s sewage treatment works from Derbyshire Live that Severn Trent has had to make multiple payments of up to GBP150,000 to settle disputes with non-compliant food vendors.

Mr Lewis said: “Sewer misuse is our biggest problem, caused by fats, oils, and greases, especially from your Sunday roast. Recently, for example, we encountered 40-50 tons of grease outside Warwick Castle that had coagulated in the back of somebody’s garden that goes under the river. Over the years with all the tourists it has become a problem.

Read more: Severn Trent promises Derbyshire sewage works will not kick up a stink “We’ve been on a big journey during the last few years for example with McDonald’s. It’s super easy to deal with all the right equipment, and now they’re powering their trucks with their grease – they’ve gone the extra mile.

“Environment Compliance and Services (ECAS) officers visit food places in Derbyshire making sure they are using the right equipment and being compliant. If they’re not, we take them to court. We’ve had to pay GBP150,000 at least twice as a result, if not three times.

Some of the bigger companies constantly misuse, and this means spending a lot of money. “Believe it or not, the UK imports grease from America, we don’t have enough of our own because we can’t capture enough at the moment. We need to get people to capture it at source and recycle it.

“We deal with around 30,000 blockages a year across the region and only have 600 staff. So we’re organising campaigns around misuse, and it’s really important to emphasise to the customer what goes on on the other end of their toilet.” Jonathon Wroe, network control business lead at Severn Trent, said: “In the kitchen, it’s easy to assume that warm grease and leftovers from your dinner are ok to be put down the sink if you wash it down with hot soapy water, but the reality is that fats and greases solidify quite quickly in the pipes.

“This can lead to a blockage which can be costly to fix and can cause a huge disruption, something nobody would want to experience.

It’s much better to pour any leftover fat, oil, or grease into a container to cool before disposing of it in the bin.”

Read more: