Harrow Lodge Park Lake and the river Ravensbourne still being polluted.

Havering Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator Ian Pirie today writes in the Havering Daily on the current situation at Harrow Lodge Park and its lake.

A visit by Havering Friends of the Earth, with the London Waterkeeper, TheoThomas, last Wednesday 12th October identified two serious problems.  

The first problem is a surface water culvert, which takes mainly rainwater into the river: this was flowing with water even though there had been no recent rain, and – shockingly – there were fragments of toilet paper as well. This must mean that there are what are known as misconnections in nearby housing. This is when an outlet (from a toilet or a kitchen or bathroom) that should feed into the sewer goes into the pipes that carry rainwater and surface water.  

This polluted water is flowing into the River Ravensbourne, and then into the lake in Harrow Lodge Park.  It was clear from the condition of the channel leading from the culvert into the river that this pollution has been going on for a long time. We have reported the situation to the Environment Agency and Thames Water. Thames Water is responsible for ensuring there are no misconnections, and when notified they promised a visit within a couple of hours!  The Environment Agency has enforcement powers when needed. 

This unacceptable pollution is almost certainly one of the factors (along with the hot weather and a build-up of silt) that led to the recent mass die-off of fish in the lake. Whether it was a significant factor or not, it is not right that sewage should be flowing into a river in a public park!

The second problem identified by the London Waterkeeper involves a sewage pipe that runs alongside (but obviously separate from) the river.  Here, we found several manhole covers that showed signs of overflow: again, there was a white deposit left by disintegrated toilet paper, and in one place pieces of toilet paper scattered round the manhole cover.  It was not possible to say how recent any overflow had occurred, nor exactly why it should have happened. A build-up of silt is the most likely explanation, and Thames Water have been approached to investigate.

We have alerted the council to these problems, and we are anxious to work with them to make sure that Thames Water in particular adheres to its statutory duty to keep our rivers and waterways clean.