Streamclean team

We aim to reduce river pollution caused by substances that should not be in sewers or due to the misconnection of foul water drains into sewers that are only meant to carry rainwater.

It is increasingly recognised that rivers and streams are not solely affected by effluent from obvious locations, such as sewage treatment works and industrial sites.

Pollution can also be caused by ‘diffuse’ sources, which are smaller individually but far greater in number. For example surface water sewers are sometimes contaminated by oil that has been carelessly disposed of, or grey water and sewage if a foul water drain has been wrongly connected.

The result is that these pollutants enter local watercourses, instead of being properly carried to the sewage treatment works.

Our Streamclean team’s goal is to trace the cause of pollution – whether it takes hours or days. The team works back to the source of the pollutant so that the problem can be rectified. We are the only water company in the UK with a department like this.