The following from the EA site might concentrate your mind as to the
urgency.

The Environment Agency has prosecuted a Chichester man who caused sewage to
enter a West Sussex watercourse after he breached an enforcement notice to
seal his cesspool.

Mr Jonathan Falkner pleaded guilty to both offences at Chichester
Magistrates Court on Wednesday 23 November 2005. Mr Falkner was fined £500
for each offence and was ordered to pay costs of £1,014.

A cesspool is a storage tank for sewage and must be emptied at regular
intervals. As a result of a year of investigations into discharges from Mr
Falkner's house, the Environment Agency served a notice on him to carry out
works to his cesspool.

One requirement was that the cesspool and associated pipework, chambers and
equipment were to be sealed and made watertight by 25 March 2004. By June
2004 the defendant showed the Environment Agency that he had apparently
sealed up the end of the discharge pipe with expanding foam and a drain
plug. Mr Falkner was then advised that the discharge must remain fully
blocked and that he should regularly check that the pipe was still sealed.

The Court heard that following a report from a member of the public on 31
March 2005, an Environment Agency Officer had cause to visit Mr Falkner's
property regarding the cesspool on site.

While the Environment Agency Officer could see that the plug and foam were
still in place it appeared that effluent was draining out through the soil
around the discharge pipe. The effluent smelt of sewage and was leaking from
the cesspool into an adjoining ditch. Green tracer dye was placed into the
cesspool to confirm the source of the discharge, and on inspection the
following day it showed that the effluent around the pipe contained the dye.

There was no possible way that the green dye trace could have escaped from
the cesspool except through a leak or crack in the tank or discharge pipe.


The Environment Agency Officer took a sample of the discharge that was
leaking from around the pipe. This showed that the discharge had a BOD level
of 147mg/l an ammonia level of 26mg/l and large numbers of faecal coliforms.

BOD is shorthand for Biochemical Oxygen Demand and is a measure of the
amount of oxygen which is taken up by the bacteria which live in the
discharge to the detriment of a watercourse and which at high levels can
cause fish to suffocate.

Raw sewage has a BOD level in the range of 300-350mg/l so clearly this
discharge was half the strength of raw sewage. Ammonia will kill fish at
6mg/l and while there was no evidence of fish deaths the level is some four
times a fatal dose. The presence of large numbers of faecal coliforms shows
that this discharge is one of excrement.

Chichester Harbour is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a
Special Area of Conservation under the Habitats Directive and a Special
Protection Area and is therefore protected by a raft of controls on
activities within it.

Speaking after the case Environment Officer Rob Cornell said: "This case
demonstrates that in this day and age the discharge of untreated sewage to
the environment, whether from the foul sewer or from a private sewage
treatment plant, is totally unacceptable.


"More so in this modern age with the large quantities of household chemicals
found in wastewater from today's households. The Environment Agency take
discharges of sewage very seriously and warns that in such cases enforcement
action will be taken.


"This will hopefully serve as a warning to the owners of properties served
by cesspools to check that their cesspools do not have any discharge pipes,
holes or cracks which could discharge untreated sewage to the environment."

In mitigation Mr Falkner said that the sewage escaped into a marshy area of
land and there was no evidence that it entered the controlled waters of
Chichester Harbour. As well as carrying out increased emptying of the
cesspool from four times a year to now every three weeks, Mr Falkner has
recently spent £6,000 on upgrading his sewage treatment facilities and this
new system will be in place shortly.

The Magistrates said that although they were pleased Mr Falkner had taken
measures to fix the problem they felt "this was rather like shutting the
door after the horse has bolted".

Mr Falkner was fined a total of £1,000 and was ordered to pay costs of
£1,014.


--
Peter Crosland