Millbrook has always suffered smells of sewage...

Millbrook Wastewater and Treatment Works...

Update October 2011

As part of Steve's door knocking and talking to other residents it became apparent that it wasn’t just Steve that had noticed the smell of sewage that had been markedly worse this summer and during September in particular in the Millbrook/Regents Park area.

As your local Conservative Candidate looking to provide action for Millbrook Steve has investigated this issue with Environmental Health on all our behalf’s and his findings to date are as follows.

The Millbrook treatment works were first built in the 1930's and has been extended in the 1960's and then also at the start of 1991. In response to the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive the dumping of sludge offshore had to be ceased so the plant was established as a regional wastewater treatment works to help bring the UK shoreline and seawater up to standards.

The resulting processed sludge is ultimately turned into a dry granulated product that is then marketed for fertiliser use on land - this is far better than just depositing of in the sea and helps to produce bumper crops.

The plant was thoroughly investigated around 6 years ago by Southampton's Environmental Health division and it was found to be well operated and utilising technology well. The recent September smell arose as a result of a faulty valve that resulted in an overflow that needed a few days cleaning up.

By nature the plant will omit odours during periods of extensive rainfall and when environmental/weather conditions make odour dispersal less likely and the lingering/build up of obnoxious smelling gas can occur in the vicinity of the plant. These factors may not be ones that Environmental Health can take action on as they come under the acceptable parameters as defined in the defra code of practice on odour nuisance from sewage treatment works.

Steve hopes to meet with Southern Water and visit the plant himself so that he can ask questions and see how the odour is currently being controlled and if there is anything else that could be done to alleviate the worst of the smells. In the meantime it is very important that anyone who experiences a particularly noxious smell of sewage calls the Southern Water complaints line to register the extent of the issues. As per the Defra guidelines operators will usually allocate their limited budgets to the plants with the most complaints so we can all help ourselves by calling each and every time a persistent and foul odour occurs.

 

1. Your Name *
2. Your email *
3. Tel. Number
4. Your Address and Details of when the smell occurred*

Read the full Defra Code of Practice on Odour Nuisance from Sewage Treatment Works by clicking this link.