Thames Water must explain how it allowed 20,000 tonnes of raw sewage to spill into the Thames and kill hundreds of fish, according to an MP.

Susan Kramer (Lib Dem Richmond Park) is demanding an explanation for what she called "a health emergency".

The Environment Agency said more than 200 dead fish had been spotted, after untreated sewage polluted the Thames around Kew, Brentford and Isleworth.

Ms Kramer said the incident would also put swimmers at risk.

She said: "This situation must be treated as a health emergency. People regularly swim and boat on this stretch of the river, and to have a sewage spill on this scale is disastrous.

"The spillage has already had a devastating effect on fish populations in the river, and the smell is very unpleasant for local residents and river users.

"Water bills are sufficiently high to allow Thames Water to put in place proper plans to prevent this kind of spillage."

Environment Agency official Tanya Houston said: "This is a serious incident which has caused the death of hundreds of fish. Unfortunately we may never know the exact numbers of fish that have died.

"We have been working hard to monitor the situation and are taking action with the help of Thames Water. We will continue to do this as the incident develops."

Members of the public can report pollution incidents by calling the Environment Agency's emergency hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

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kev king said:

... Wednesday, 15 July 2009 part 1 of 2 Re Pollution of River Thames from Raw sewage Dear Sir/madam On Tues 23rd of June 09 my pal Lawrence Spectre and myself embarked on a fishing trip on the Tidal Thames at Isleworth by the Houseboat moorings using the steps and wading out into ebbing low water at approx 9.30 am Initially our observations were that the steps were covered in an abnormal amount of sludge and found the river to be foul smelling and containing suspended particle matter making the water abnormally cloudy. As the tide receded this became clear to us that this was raw sewage During our time there was no evidence of any fish at all As concerned anglers serving to duty we contacted The Environmental Agency and informed them that Mogden Lane Sewage have been pumping raw sewage into the River Thames and would they please send an investigator as we were concerned for the wildlife and public health The EA gave us an incident number : 690820 at the above date and said they would report back to us as to what action they would take, But they failed to let us know On Sunday 5th July some articles were published (see enclosed articles in the press Mail On Sunday and The London Paper referring to the release of 20000 tons of raw sewage by Mogden resulting in pollution and fish deaths said to be due to “flash floods” Please note we reported this some 13 days earlier and a check on the Met Office weather history revealed no flash flooding at that time On Monday 6th of July Mr Spectre again contacted the EA by phone and a mr Dunlop who was dealing with this matter was “out of office” and he was handed over to a Laura Dowsett who when confronted with these facts adopted a belligerent, aggressive unsympathetic stance, sympathising with Mogden and treated my colleague as a nuisance Part 2 of 2 It seems quite apparent that the EA made no attempt to investigate this incident when it was first reported We have seen all too often that this sewage situation to be a re occurring incident over the past 10 years with all the same old excuses and always resulting in death to our wildlife and yet more pollution to our rivers and coastline We have to conclude That if the Environmental Agency (part of a government quango) will fail miserably to support us then who will be able to put an end to the blatant continual poisoning of our rivers It is nothing short of criminal Yours faithfully Kev King and Lawrence Spectre

July 15, 2009

Concerned Resident said:

... With the implementation of the Environmental Damage Regulations in England on the 1st March 2009(implements long awaited EU's Environmental Liability Directive) the Environment Agency have a statutory duty to inspect this incident. They should force remediation/clean up, get Thames water to carry out complimentary and compensatory remediation. Incidents like this are what this legislation is for!!!

July 18, 2009

James Salter said:

... Perhaps, King Kev, you and your pal have just been using the wrong type of bait - cornels of sweetcorn just aren't enought to tempt fish in that stretch of the river. As a fellow concerned angler serving to duty, might i suggest you use a combination of maggots and worms - that should do the trick.

August 10, 2009

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