Over 450,000 tonnes of storm sewage was discharged into the River Thames last week after downpours drenched the capital.
After the event a clean up of the river had to be carried out due to the number of dead fish and raw sewage seen floating between Kew Bridge and Albert Bridge.
The rainfall on Sunday the 5th of June and Monday the 6th of June forced waste water out of the sewer system through the overflow points that lead into the river.
The Environment Agency director for the south east, Howard Davidson, stated:
“This is a major sewage pollution incident which has caused the death of a huge number of fish.
“We are currently monitoring Thames Water’s clean up efforts and assessing the full impact but unfortunately we may never know the exact numbers of fish that have died.”
Thames Water say they regretted the incident and hoped future solutions would stop such an event
happening again. Martin Braggs from Thames Water stated:
“Incidents like this are clearly totally unsatisfactory in a modern capital city and we have a major programme of work under way to sort the problem out.
“In the west London area this includes a 50 per cent increase in treatment capacity at our Mogden sewage treatment works, which will be complete early in 2013, and the proposed Thames Tunnel.”