Spill Dumps Equivalent Of 170 Swimming Pools' Worth Of Raw Sewage in Firth Of Forth

[hatrack]

JACK McConnell last night ordered an inquiry into how more than 100 million litres of raw sewage was released into the sea following a "catastrophic" fault at Scotland's largest sewage works.

Untreated sewage poured into the Firth of Forth from the Seafield treatment depot in Edinburgh at a rate of 1,000 litres a second from 4:30pm on Friday until about 2pm yesterday, before slowing to 200 litres per second.

By 9pm last night, when the discharge was expected to stop, enough untreated sewage to fill 169 Olympic-sized swimming pools was estimated to have flowed into the sea.

The untreated sewage, which could cause "all kinds of illness", was released into the Forth by Thames Water as a "standard" emergency response after one of its pumps developed a fault. Warnings from authorities urging people to stay out of the water from South Queensferry to Portobello were branded inadequate, with some parents still letting their children and pets paddle in the polluted water yesterday, completely unaware of the danger.

EDIT

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=621342007

[htuttle]

1. "Firth of Forth Filled with Filth Friday"

Foul.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Nicely done.

:thumbsup:

[Double T]

2. How much aquatic life will die or become ill from this irresponsible disaster?