River Chess Association Chairman Paul Jennings reports ” We heard from Thames Water on Tuesday (17 June). They said “the storm flows have virtually ceased. There is a small amount of weir-over into the storm tanks each day, but this is being pumped back to the works without discharging to the river.”
This is positive news for the River Chess which has been receiving sewage discharges for more than four months since early February. We calculate the amount of sewage discharged into the Chess was as great as the amount of oil spilled during the BP Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Admittedly sewage is less toxic than crude oil but on the other hand the River Chess is much smaller than the Gulf of Mexico.
Now the real work starts to ensure that this never happens again.
We would not say it is safe to get back in the water, just less dangerous, paraphrasing Jaws II.”
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