London Engineers Clear Out 40-Ton 'Fatberg' from Sewer After 3 Weeks
The U.K. is flushing easier now that 40 tons of gunk have been removed from a South London sewer.
The so-called fatberg located near Greenwich took British workers three weeks to clear, according to Fox News.
The clog was removed through the use of high-powered water jets to blast it apart and then good old-fashioned hands-on work to take the pieces away, the utility Thames Water said in a release.
The fatberg, a collection of fat, grease and nondegradable items that made their way into the sewer system, had taken about 80 percent of the sewer’s capacity.
Without action to remove it, sewage would have backed up into the homes and businesses of customers above.
The 40-tonne fatberg was clogging up an underground sewer ? https://t.co/bbqPHRdFFn
— Evening Standard (@EveningStandard) November 3, 2019
“This was a massive and disgusting blockage that took a great deal of effort and teamwork to clear and get the sewer working well again,” Matt Rimmer, Thames Water’s head of waste networks, said.
“I’m happy that our team was able to get down and work hard to quickly to clear the fatberg before it could cause problems for our customers and the environment,” he said.
Although fatbergs have happened before, Rimmer said it is up to consumers not to let them happen again.
“We’d urge everyone to help fight the fatberg by only flushing the 3Ps — pee, poo and paper — as well as disposing of fat and oils in the bin, not the sink,” he said.
Thames Water also noted that officials were visiting restaurants in the area to ensure that they are not violating rules against dumping fat, grease and oil in London’s sewers.
Fatbergs are not confined to England but are a product of modern living even in the U.S.
Fatbergs are a major problem forcing raw sewage into rivers and homes. Don’t know what a fatberg is? Watch this clip to learn more! And to see the full segment, click here: https://t.co/gK4uB5aKyB pic.twitter.com/tAEwU4fSE2
— Great Lakes Now (@GreatLakesNow) November 1, 2019
Although the Greenwich fatberg was a mass of yuck, it was hardly a British record.
That honor belongs to a collection of fat, grease and other disgusting stuff found in 2017 in Whitechapel. That fatberg was 250 meters long and weighed an estimated 130 tons.
Other massive fatbergs have been found in Liverpool and Sidmouth as well as other locations in London.
The utility estimates that it removes 30 tons of unflushable material a day from someplace in the sprawling sewer network that services London and the surrounding area.
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