Residents in Bourne End have alerted Thames Water to sewage collecting on the banks of the River Thames near their homes.
Christine Roy spoke in the Bucks Free Press. She said that she had called Thames Water after noticing a “scum” on the river’s surface.
She said:
“I saw it floating down the river in the morning,”
“By the time I got back home later that day it had drifted into our pontoon.
“The Thames Water inspector took a look and said someone would return, so I took a bucket of the stuff just in case it floated away before they came back.
“It doesn’t smell that bad, but it looks absolutely horrible.”
Early Environment Agency reports suggest that the leak emanated from a faulty pipe at Little Meadow sewage works. Thames Water has apologised, their spokesperson Natalie Slater said:
“This is deeply regrettable and we have been working around the clock to try and get this resolved.
“We have done a clean-up of the river and we’ll get this mess cleared up today (Tuesday).
“Our engineers continue to monitor the site to prevent any more pollution and we have a team of dedicated specialists working to get the equipment back up and running. We hope to get this sorted as soon as we can.”