Petition

[ILee]

Saw this on another forum and thought you all might be interested.


You may or may not know that the Prime Minister's office has set up an online system, whereby UK citizens can create and sign up to petitions. These petitions, should they generate enough support, are then passed directly to the Prime Minister, and his legislators, for their attention. Sufficient support will lead to Commons motions and, ultimately, to changes being made...perhaps!!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/sewage is a petition posted yesterday and deals with the treatment of sewage in the UK. I don't want to preach but most of the water companies in the UK (all bar 3) do very little to treat their raw sewage before it is pumped out to sea. Using what is known as "long fall" pipes the raw sewage is discharged far out in the Ocean. There it remains, accumulating and combining, until it becomes a noxious soup of toxins and pollutants. This hazardous mix is ingested into the food chain and, because it cannot be broken down, eventually comes back to us. This is on top of the problem that you regular surfers will have experienced (especially on the Gower!!!) whereby if the currents and winds combine in the wrong way this raw sewage gets washed up on the beach. I have surfed through xxxxx more than once!!!

The petition calls for legislation to make tertiary treatment the minimum standard prior to the discharge of sewage. This treatment will remove all solids (you know what I'm talking about) and most of the toxins, chemicals, bacterium and viruses that exist in raw sewage. It is the only safe treatment for sewage and will transform the UK from the Dirty Man Of Europe (as yes, we ARE known) to a world leader. It will also produce a lot more blue flag beaches. Only 3 water companies subscribe to this level of treatment thus far and the rest will not sign up without legislation.

ThreeSixty magazine have backed the campaign and support has been sought from Carve, Wavelength, SAS, Surfers Path and the Surfrider Foundation, to name a few. It's early days, and perhaps I'm being a bit naieve, but if we can build up some momentum then hopefully the water companies will have to take note and may act prior to legislation being passed. So sign up today.... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/sewage (note, no WWW!!)!!!!

Remember, to quote Edmund Burke (or what he WOULD have said if this issue had existed in 1795):
"The only thing neccessary for the triumph of pollution is for surfers to do nothing"

Cheers all.

Were the ones who swim and surf in it so why not get signing.

[Jimi]

just nit-picking, but sewage (untreated) is readily broken down by algae which use the high nitrogen content to sustain lots of life (it's actually pretty fertile). The major concern is the sanitation of the water that washes onto the beaches prior to algal consumption, which may lead to dysentry and other yucky diseases for swimmers if it's not suitably treated before being pumped out to sea. This isn't anything to do with the food chain, but is more to do with free peices of sewage washing into contact with humans.

Same situation as if lots of fertilisers wash into rivers, except that the ocean is so big that the algal growth doesn't suck all the oxygen out of the water.

oh yeh, I support the treatment plan, since I don't want dysentry.

[drowningbitbybit]

Never mind the specifics, I think we can all agree that "raw sewage" and "ocean" really shouldnt be combined.

[Jimi]

absolutely.
I wish our government would do something, since the main sydney outlet pipe is only 4miles offshore and in the prevailing winds, it often ends up on sydney's beaches...
Not pleasant.

[libby]

Actually jman ocean dumping of solid organic waste (sewage) can cause alot of damage to marine life. When the sewage dumping is severe it can actually settle and then make parts of the seabed anoxic and you see big declines in things like Clams and Polychaetes

Also the idea that eutrophication isnt an issue for marine organisms, only riverine ones is not true, although generally damage is localised, for example in harbours and estuaries

[el_timmo]

well, you told him!

[el_timmo]

wish I knew what exactly it was that you told him!

[drowningbitbybit]

you see big declines in Clams and Polychaetes

That's a posh shop near Harrods isnt it? Do you mean there's a sale on?

[libby]

If i ever open a posh shop near Harrods (aka when hell freezes over) thats sooooo what i'm going to call it!

Actually with all this weird weather maybe it wont be that long till hell freezes over

[Real Pol]

Unfortunately due to the massive dilution the sea is considered the perfect dumping ground for sewage and while the non-sea using public have the out of sight out of mind attitude it’s not going to change. Putting all the UKs sewage through tertiary treatment would be so expensive and that expense would be passed on to the public who would not be happy.

However, I’ll stop being pessimistic, I’m a firm believer in legislation so I’ll sign up and pass it onto my mates.

Maybe some of these water companies down south with the record profits can use some of that money for better treatment………………or maybe not.

[easty]

Ive signed up and Im not even living in england !! I know here in Aus that there's a few outfalls but most have either been stopped or are in the process if being cleaned up !. The thing that really gets me is why people leave their rubbish on the beach !! Im often picking up cans and plastic bottles and dumping them in the bin !

E

[Jimi]

Libby, thanks for the marine science update. I stand corrected...

But still, the majority of toxins killing marine life in sewage output is not derived from human excretions. It's the biocides put in as a cheap treatment, to limit diseases and bacteria.

But it's still the dysentry and hepatitis that drives my campaign against sewage dumping.

[libby]

Yeh your spot on Jman, sewage outlet into oceans isnt one of the MAJOR problems facing marine systems, its just one of the smaller ways we are managing to fleshin' things up. Still a major problem though.

Great petition.

[Jimi]

while we're on the topic of marine/environment/global destruction, our crazy state government is planning to put in a desalination plant near sydney to solve our drought problems!!!!

Logic goes like this: climate change means Australia is getting bugger all rain, but we all still need water. So, instead of following what everyone else does, and treat our runoff and waste water with high grade filters (relatively high water capacity for very little energy expense), our state government wants to build a major seawater distillation plant and a nuclear power plant to fuel it (very energy inefficient). grrrrrr.

[thebigsewagepetition]

Hay all, taken me a while to get round to this forum. I'm the evangelical fella that posted the petition (don't invite me to dinner parties!!). And, for the sake of accuracy, I just wanna clear something up from my original rhetoric (this may get a bit dull, but bear with me!!).

In my enthusiasm I talked about "raw sewage" being discharged. Technically this isn't quite right. It's actually sewage that has undergone "primary treatment" to remove suspended matter and reduce some of the solids. It's still packed to the gunnels with a million faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml water. If you're wondering, these can make you ill!!! Hepatitus A, Gastro-enteritis etc etc...

Soon legislation will be brought into place to ensure sewage is treated to a "secondary" standard. This reduces those fcb's to about 100,000 per 100ml water. Still so dangerous to humans that it has to be dumped at least 2 miles out to sea..and it'll still give you those diseases when it washes back to shore....which it will!!!

Tertiary treatment reduces thos fcb's to 35 per 100ml, very safe and WON'T make you ill....hence the petition. How can we legislate to make dangerous sewage slightly less dangerous but still dangerous, when the technology, for a relatively small investment, is there to fix it?

The reason I'm telling you all this (get to the point, get to the point I hear you cry) is that anecdotally, when I've explained the situation to people they still see primary treated sewage as "raw". So I've used that term, as the public can relate to it more easily. However the PR machine of the water companies is to point out that it's not actually raw in a technical sense, and therefore try to devalue the argument. A ridiculous stance as it does nothing to address the problems that tertiary treatment will solve...merely a smoke screen device!

So this is my pre-emptive strike!!!

Get signing folks

P.