Raw sewage in Forth

[Jock]

LONDON (Reuters) - The public have been warned to avoid contact with water in the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh in Scotland after the discharge of millions of litres of untreated sewage.

People going to the shore have been told to make sure they thoroughly wash their hands before eating following the spillage from an emergency outflow at Leith after a pumping station failed.

The sewage has been pouring into the sea at a rate of 1,000 litres a second since 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

A spokeswoman for Thames Water, which runs the station in a consortium on behalf of Scottish Water, said engineers hoped to stem the flow by Sunday evening.

They were working to install two temporary pumps after the failure of a pump which normally sends the sewage to the nearby Seafield final treatment plant.

The sewage has already been diluted and screened to remove solid material but the BBC said local people had reported finding human waste on the shore.

Gordon Greenhill, head of community safety at Edinburgh City Council, told BBC television there should be no long-term environmental risk from the spillage.

"This is a short-term problem. The capacity of nature to deal with things will deal with that," he said.

Once the flow was shut off the sewage would disperse and be diluted in the North Sea, he added.

report from yahoo news.

[mrmij]

All well an good to claim no long term damage but try telling that to the salmon heading up the forth to enter into our local waters,i.e. the carron the allan the forth proper an the teith etc only time will tell but it could cause a drop in numbers an affect the eating if ye are lucky enough to catch.!!!!!

[Jock]

Another disaster for the environment but who gives a f**k its not our problem, Let our grandchildren and great grandchildren inherit our mess because they are the people who are going to have to deal with our shabby attitude towards our environment on land and sea.
Vote Green or let the present political parties continue to rape and destruct the environment in the name of commercial and industrial progress.

[mrmij]

Now now expressing political opinions rank along side swearing on the site an shouldny be tolerated especially at such a critical time with respect of the forthcoming elections!!!!!!im sure there are more apropriate places for such things but as i mentioned earlier swearing isnae allowed.

[Jock]

There speaks the voice of reason and tolerance. I think you should get a day off work to vote, can we have a vote on that.