This morning Scottish Water were on site and looked set to start cleaning up the residue left in the overnight Maggot
Jobbie Loch, not before several people had walked through the sewage sludge
however, this image taken around 09.45. Ironically, nearby a Fishertown was dutily picking up his pet's poo and made comment on his bagged item and Scottish Water's sewage sludge warming up in the morning sun.
And this afternoon almost one hour after a
short downpour the Jobbie Loch was back and still being fed by the sewer. The third pollution incident this week. Should the Environmental Health authorities put up signs to say this area is contaminated with sewage?
The
manhole was once again in a dangerous position and surrounded by bits of turd and other unmentionables. (individual images here).
Enough is enough, this part of tourist town Nairn is starting to look like an open sewer in a third world shanty town. Time for the authorities to come up with a permanent fix. If you are reading about these discharges for the first time here are images and comment on previous incidents in the last seven days.
And the historical perspective - this is an ongoing problem as this video from July 2008 proves.
UPDATE: Thanks to Naomi there is now reaction from Scottish Water on twitter.
UPDATE: Thanks to Naomi there is now reaction from Scottish Water on twitter.
UPDATE: earlier this evening (Friday) the Gurn spoke to a source close to River Community Council. Our source told us that there were a total of nine Scottish Water employees down by today, inspecting the manholes and pipes and working out all the permutations and cleaning up the mess. Unfortuneately later on we had pollution incident 3. Our source went on to tell us that an informal meeting is planned between a Scottish Water representitive and CC members and other interested parties in the latter half of next week. Again this evening, this observer had a call from Scottish Water in relation to alerting them to the 2nd pollution incident. It seems a larger vehicle will be down by tomorrow in an attempt to see if there are any blockages that can be cleared. In the meantime mind your step if out on the Maggot side of the sewage bridge!
Update: another wee flashback to 2008, helpful perhaps for all those showing an interest in this matter.
24 comments:
I must go down and loom for myself. This could be a good tourist feature for Nairn yon know. We just need some enterprising businesses to set iphone some stalls, sell some souvenirs, postcards etc. We could get people coming from all over the UK to come and stare at this.
However if it continues, scottish water should maybe temporarily close their bridge and that would help people trampling over any debris if it occurs in rain.
Closing the bridge is not going to help the situation as everytime the manholes discharge, the path down from the bridge on the Maggot side is left with a stinking sludge and people and their pets and kids are walking through it. At the very least they need to put up some signs or cordon off the jobbie loch.
This is a real and immediate health and safety issue. Why aren't the council dealing with it?
Cordon off the area yes. Shut the bridge and that wouldb be a good start. No-one would walk past the offending manhole. Or cycle, as one video showed.
Good to see that incidents are being responded to quickly. Good to see as many as 9 people attending site, I think this shows real commitment to resolve the problem.
Why don't people stop meaning about action from the council, when it's not a council issue and scottish water are responding and showing an effort to get to the bottom of the matter?
If it is a blocked pipe, maybe the question should be aimed at fellow residents. What exactly do you flush away or pour down a sink. Cloth wipes should go in a bin and oil or fat should't go in a sink, as it goes solid in the sewer pipe.
I don't pour oils or fat and wipes go in a bin. But does everyone? How many businesses have fat traps? Maybe we (in Nairn as a whole) aren't helping ourselves.
Of course with the age of that pipe, it wouldn't have been originally installed by highland council from inverness. But probably a Nairn council job. We can't blame an Inverness based council for the original installation if it's found to be faulty. But that's another blog story...
Yes indeed I do my best to minimise how much oil and fat goes down a sink and we never put anything other than loo paper down the toilet bowl.
So then better public education is one answer to prevent any problems in the future, and a short history lesson to understand how the thing was built in the first place and a bit of 'how it all works' so that people understand exactly what is running through and from where.
Then of course there is a the public health issue. What exactly is now on the pavements? Does anyone know for a fact? How much of a hazard is it to health and is it the kind of stuff that you want on the soles of your shoes, the tyres of bikes, pushchairs and wheelchairs, the paws of animals etc How much is being carried into homes and onto carpets, lino and wood, and potentially onto soft furnishings?
This observer would suggest that the Council should get itself involed on the public health side of things. Around 11.00 this morning the footpath still looked like this.
A young girl riding her scooter along the riverside walk had come to a halt in the centre of it, her shoes and scooter wheels clogged with the sludge.
the root cause of these sewage spillages is that rain water goes into road gullys which then go into sewer system if it was only sewage in sewer pipes you would not get sewer flooding in heavy rain whos to blame highland council not scottish water
i say stop using the toilets and start crapping outside as dogs do,and owners dont lift it it,ll save pipes clogging up
@ anon 11.30. The storm drains should take the water from the roads and release it into the river at times of stress to the system. Witness the drains at the Factor's Pool and the old cemetery.
Not nice but it has to go somewhere, it should be going through the storm drain outlets directly into the river and not out of manholes in pavements.
That's my lay theory anyway.
It'd be nice if Scottish Water release a statement shortly to tell us the result of their investigations.
I had a word with one of the Scottish water workers inspecting the merryton maggot manhole this morning. I asked "when was the sewer pipe last rodded or power cleaned ?" "A few years" was the reply.
Blaming fat when it's not cleaned at least annually could be part of the problem!
Some sewers take sewage from homes plus road drainage - a common design years ago. Hence when it rains heavily, all of a sudden the flow in the sewer increases rapidly.
If fat is the culprit then why are there not similar situations all over Nairn when it rains?
Joe,
Blaming fat IS obviously the issue then. If it has't been done for many years and it is found to be the problem.
But this then begs another question. If scottish water don't clean this pipe annually, how many others don't they clean annually?
Joe's comment re the fat and when it was last done by Scottish Water made this observer consult the Gurn files. Was it July 2008 by any chance? Here’s an article from July 2008 entitled The sewerage bridge – was fat to blame
The comments on that article are worth a read too: Spelding said four years ago: “Whatever was to blame, the area still hasn't been cleaned up properly. I was walking down there tonight and it still stinks. Surely there must be health issues with all this festering sewage material still lying about? Why hasn't the area been cleaned, I can understand the issues with polluting the river but, lets face it, a little bit more shit going into the river is not going to make that much more difference. Can't they get a pressure washer or something and get the place cleaned up once and for all before some human or animal ends up with some nasty bug?”
Haven’t we come a long way?
I seem to remember Scottish Water has a big scare campaign re fat a couple of years back pointing fingers at chip pans etc. A lot of the fat that ends up in our sewer system comes from soap! See what happens if you try and be too clean
I'm pretty sure that was probably the last time this sewer was cleaned out. It should be done annually I would think. Like all these big organisations they will only spend money when compelled to do so !
Anyone remember the Scottish Water horror vidn from 2009?
Halloween Video Nasty
A quick Google shows many reports that it is FAT that turns to a hard soap material in sewers. No matter what we think, if the wrong stuff is deliberately put into sewers then problems can occur.
But if this sewer hasn't been cleaned every year, are they cleaning all the other sewers annually?
I don't think these are drains for water coming from roads. I always thought these were sewer overflow pipes.
So the blame game goes on. It's Scottish Water, oh no it's not! It's the Council, oh no it's not! It's the rain, it's the fat, it's the crap, it's aliens from outer space!
Whatever is the cause, whoever is to blame, this has being going on for too long. Time to get it sorted once and for all? Either that, or in the short term, block off the areas which are worst affected so people don't traipse unwittingly through the sludge.
Went down to the river this morning to see the devastation and streams of raw sewage I've been reading so much about. I was so disappointed to see all pavements dry with no mess.
I guess I too was wanting to point, stare and blame. Have I missed out seeing something though? If this has been happening constantly for years as some comments have said, I seem to have missed it. Typical!
Maybe the video I saw on utube was a figment of my imagination?
@ Disappointed of Nairn, you said: "I was so disappointed to see all pavements dry with no mess.@
You should have gone round the corner to the Jobbie Loch footprint Anon (or maybe specsavers instead?) One quick sniff of the sludge on the path and you too could have gone home sure in the knowledge that you hadn’t missed it.
Pictures here taken around 1730 today (Sunday) of where to go for a wee sniff test anon
The grass looks in a bad state too! Looks like the miracle gro hasn’t worked.
Why will no one take responsibility for cleaning up the path?
No gushers or what was described? Flying manholes!
I did see some brown grass today though. It was on the tennis courts while watching Wimbledon. People walking over and over the same spot. Tennis players running over and over the same spot. Who knows.
Mind you the weather forecast is for rain mid week. I'll come back then with my wellies on and hope for a splash around then. It would be a shame to miss all the fun otherwise.
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