Biggest ever bus-sized 'Fatberg' threatened London Streets

Repairs have started after Britain's biggest ever 'fatberg' - the size of a double-decker bus - was removed from a London sewer.

The 15-tonne mass of festering food fat mixed with wet wipes and sanitary products threatened to send raw sewage spurting onto the leafy streets of Kingston upon Thames.

"We've never seen a single, congealed lump of lard this big clogging our sewers before," said Gordon Hailwood, waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water.

"The sewer was almost completely clogged with over 15 tonnes of fat," said Mr Hailwood.

"If we hadn't discovered it in time, raw sewage could have started spurting out of manholes across the whole of Kingston.

"It was so big it damaged the sewer and repairs will take up to six weeks."

The foul blockage was discovered when residents of nearby flats complained they could not flush their toilets.

Investigators found that the 70x48cm sewer had been reduced to just five per cent of its normal capacity.

Mr Hailwood added: "Given we've got the biggest sewers and this is the biggest fatberg we've encountered, we reckon it has to be the biggest such berg in British history."

Water bosses want the public to change their ways to help avoid another gigantic fat blob forming under London's streets.

For fat, sanitary items and wet wipes - which do not break down like toilet paper - the message is "bin it - don’t block it".

Ewww that's just nasty. Just when you think you have heard of everything something new pops up. Ive been searching for a video of it to post but there doesn't seem to be one yet. Its going to be so gross but like a car crash you have to sneak a look.

I feel so sorry for whoever is going to have to scrape that out >.<

reply to post by PhoenixOD


LOL How the heck did all that fat get in there Is there a food court nearby or what????

dayum, thats a lot of cookies worth of fat.



Delicious

Originally posted by Biigs
dayum, thats a lot of cookies worth of fat.



Delicious

to far biigs , to far

Intrusive advertising , poor school lunches and slack parents made me this way! Im a victim!

*hugs a huge pile of cookies*

it is about time that local council went through all the local eateries bills to see how much fat they bought and how much they paid to get dumped .

lugging 15 tons of fat is going to take days so why not spend days going through the books of firms in that area

Kind of looks like my arteries.
Not proud of it but it is what it is.

I doubt this is the result of just one sauce! (Hehe) It is in a main sewer, so would be an amalgam of lots of differing sources. It is difficult to envision just how it occurs though.

It appears that they have already spent a week or so, jetting the blockage, to reduce it so it can be sucked out and transported away by tanker lorries. Not an exactly pleasant task I would think.

The tanked liquid is then further broken down at a disposal site, presumably a sewage farm.

There is no indication on the age/construction of this sewer, but any intrusion into the sewage flow could cause the build up to start and build up.

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that it will be our living style that brings about the demise of the people on this plant, not a large lump of rock hitting us!

Well maybe.

Oils, fats and ofcourse raw sewage in general from residences/businesses alike accumulated over a period of time (especially during cold seasons). The fats would melt away partially in a tropical country unlike UK where it is pretty cold throughout the year IMO. This only shows how the department of sanitation workers might not be doing their job or monitoring/inspecting the sewage pipes periodically as they should. Remotely operated pipe inspection technology is readily available and it is used by many sanitation departments across the world.

reply to post by dowot


Lets also not forget the various cleaning agents and chemicals (commercial and residential) used in our kitchens and restaurants and ofcourse the ingredients themselves (GMO fed animals and cultivated plants) rich in oils, fats and minerals

At one time, local councils (remember them?) had teams of men with pressure sprayers who's job it was to go into sewers, inspect, clean and break up any forming masses (its actually quite common).

Then the water companies were privatized, and they realised it was cheaper to respond to problems, rather than prevent them.

This happens all the time in home sewers where your sewer meets a neighbours for instance.
It is ALWAYS the sanitary products and wet wipes that cause the blockages combined with the fat.
none of these products should be disposed of down the toilet, sink or basin.
I have cleared many a drain when i lived in an older property for this reason as have many others i know.

SIMPLE ANSWER is to STOP disposing of things improperly but hey thats far to easy a solution isn't it (facepalm)

Are people really that stupid to not know you cannot flush tampons and maxie pads down the toilet or dispose of cooking oil down the drain?

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
Are people really that stupid to not know you cannot flush tampons and maxie pads down the toilet or dispose of cooking oil down the drain?

Apparently so

Im not pointing any fingers..

reply to post by PhoenixOD


On a related note: Michael Moore was just evicted from his Flat in Kingston, UK.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
Are people really that stupid to not know you cannot flush tampons and maxie pads down the toilet or dispose of cooking oil down the drain?

I am on a septic tank, as my part of town is essentially "the country".

But the city has a campaign, "Eliminate FOG".

F- fats
O- oils
G- grease

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Looks like they do plan to reuse the fatberg, as ehem "clean energy"