The Parish Council & Anglian Water

The River Ise and the (sewage) Pumping Station have been a source of concern for some years as raw sewage had been seen in the River, particularly after heavy rain.

The Parish Council have been in discussions with Anglian Water who then made a visit.  At a recent Parish Council meeting, a report had been received from Anglian Water with its findings, and its proposals to deal with the problems it found.

Commitments made at the Parish Council meeting and the written response to the Parish Council following the meeting.

• The main sewer to the Pumping Station and the wet well clean will be carried out every 6 months. It was confirmed the wet well clean would change to six monthly. The sewer has been on a 12 monthly clean for sometime.
• The pumping station will be checked every two months to include testing of the equipment on site, as well as inspection and removal of debris and non flushables from the pumps and non return valves. This has been set up for 2 monthly visits (dovetails in with the wet well clean, ie if no debris found, wet well clean will not be necessary). Planned visits were completed on 7th September 2018 and 26th October 2018. Forthcoming checks have an internal level of service of within 1 month of the planned date to allow for efficient scheduling of resources.

Photos of visit on 26th October 2018 below:

Both non returnable valves  were cleaned and both pumps inspected. Pictures show evidence of wipes and unflushables which should not be in the system.

(AW note: Share with Council and discuss awareness.)

On a planned service basis, the visits are currently based on the type of asset, for example a small wet well submersible may be used on a 3 yearly basis and for others yearly. In this case it was a yearly frequency.This has changed recently to predictive/condition-based service, so there is no fixed frequency.

• The alarm code has been set to the highest priority to enable a quicker response. (AW note: Completed)

We have also reviewed the alarm code index and the pumping station appears to be working well, with a single alarm in July.

The other Pumping station in Geddington is GEOCSP Orchard Close. AW responded to a high alarm call in October and as part of their review, changed the two pumps in this pumping station.

Anglian Water Pollution Watch
– Spot it, Report it, Stop it.

If you see any sewage in the river then take the following steps:

Report to Anglian Water immediately on 03457 145145. Lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, calls free from BT landline.

The most obvious sign of sewage pollution of a stream or river is the presence of sewage solids in the water, but there may be other indications. These include toilet debris such as wipes and sanitary products, soap suds of a milky-looking discharge in the water, grey coloured water (see images above) and/or a noticeable sewage smell in the air.

Anglian Water suggest that to enhance information gathering, a note is made of time, date, visual record and weather conditions in the following way:

What have you seen?
Can you describe it?
Is it flowing?
How big is it?
When did you notice it?
Where is it?
Is it near a landmark?
Is it near or in a watercourse?
What are the weather conditions?

What Anglian Water will do:

Take immediate action.
Inform the Environment Agency if there is any risk of environmental impact.
If Anglian Water is responsible, we will stop the discharge as soon as we can, clean up any affected area of watercourse or land and investigate the causes of the discharge to prevent re-occurrence.