Post date: Aug 06, 2013 5:45:14 PM
The discovery of a 15-tonne 'fatberg' consisting of cooking fat and sanitary wipes has been removed from a sewer in south London with worksystem.scripts. now underway to repair the damage that it caused.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 6, 2013) (REUTERS) - Repair work is being carried out beneath a busy London street after a 15 tonne 'fatberg' was discovered in the underground sewers.
The so-called fatberg, a lump of festering food fat and wet wipes is the biggest of its kind to be found in the sewer network, according to Thames Water.Thames Water who manage the city's sprawling underground networks said the blockage resulted in the sewer only operating at a capacity of five percent.
Gordon Hailwood is the waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water, he described the 'Fatberg' as smelling like 'wet dog'.
''The best way to describe what it smelt like is a damp wet dog smell, or rotten food waste, decomposing over a number of years or, so that's the best way to describe it,'' said Hailwood.
The giant fatberg was discovered last month, by workers on the 4 July, it took three weeks to remove from the pipes that date back to Victorian London.
''We got rid of it buy using high pressure water jetting to break it down into manageable chunks and then it was sucked up into the back of tanker lorries, and then discarded at plant treatment works. This is then added a chemical to it to break it down even further and then it goes to a landfill tip site from their on it, it's buried,'' said Hailwood.
Excavation work is now being carried out to repair the damaged pipes that cover a distance of around 20 metres.
The fatberg is a mixture of discarded food fat mixed with wet wipes, left to fester underground, where it then congeals and becomes a pungent, slimy mass.
''I think it's just a general consensus of the public that are misusing or misunderstanding what they can deposit down the sewers. Everything that should go down there should be biodegradeable, not wet wipes which is another common problem that seems to be blocking our sewers and causing customer disruption to our network,'' said Hailwood as workers carried out restoration work to the sewer on the roadside.
Thames Water were alerted that there was a problem when residents in the south London area ofKingston said they couldn't flush their toilets.
If the pipe hadn't been unblocked it could have resulted in sewage flooding homes and businesses in the area.
Work on the damaged pipe is expected to last six weeks.