Sewage UK: Outraged resident demands apology from Yorkshire Water as raw waste spills onto village streets 'since December'

A resident has slammed his local water company and is demanding an apology as raw sewage has been spilling onto streets “since early December”. Paul Jennings, a river activist from Kilham in East Yorkshire, said Yorkshire Water should “apologise for the inconvenience” as it has been “distressing” and “creates a health hazard for residents and pets, especially dogs being walked”.

The 66-year-old told NationalWorld that the water firm “initially repeatedly denied it was sewage and that it was not their responsibility to fix it” and demanded the water company “apologise for its repeated misleading statements”. He said the sewage is overflowing because a “high level of groundwater is being experienced” and Yorkshire Water’s “design has failed” as the “increased volume is causing a failure of the network and the sewage treatment works are unable to process all the diluted sewage.”

Mr Jennings added that “as an interim measure “ Yorkshire Water has “sought approval from the Environment Agency to discharge the excess sewage into the Beck, a globally important flagship chalk stream and SSSI.” The Beck starts in Kilham and ends up in the River Hull. He said Yorkshire Water believes levels of ammonia “are low enough to avoid any serious damage to the Beck” but Mr Jennings believes the water firm “should concede that there will be other pollutants in the discharge that could cause damage to the Beck and they should be investigating ways to mitigate these issues.”

Mr Jennings said the water company needs “to commit to quickly rectifying the long-term problems that have become evident over recent weeks” including a “complete overhaul and repair of the sewer network in the village.” He added that the firm has “mishandled this whole incident from the very first time it was notified of the discharge” and it should “retrain their staff to avoid a repeat of this incident” and “make compensation measures for those impacted.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson confirmed to NationalWorld that “groundwater levels in some parts of the East Riding are at the highest on record for this time of year” due to an “extremely wet autumn that included a series of named storms”. The spokesperson said: “As a result, there are significant natural spring flows around Kilham and some boreholes in the area are around the highest levels recorded. Natural flows coming up from the high groundwater level is producing a significant amount of water, enough to cause the Old Gypsey to flow.

“This excess water is infiltrating the sewer network and affecting its usual operation. We understand how distressing this can be for customers, and we are working hard to support people in the area by pumping additional flows out of the network to relieve pressure on the sewer where we can and to carry out clean-ups following escapes from the network. We are working closely with the Environment Agency and once groundwater levels subside, we will be carrying out a thorough investigation of the sewers in the area to understand the source of the additional water infiltration.”