Thames Water to Address Meeting on Mogden

Plans for major expansion at sewage treatment plant

Representatives from Thames Water are to give a short presentation on their plans to expand the Mogden plant at a forthcoming meeting of the Isleworth and Brentford Area Committee. The Mogden Residents' Action Group believe that without specific targets for odour control the expansion would lead to a significant increase in the stench from the site.

The meeting takes place on the 17th May to be held in the Brentford Free Church, Boston Manor Road, Brentford on Thursday, 17 May 2007 at 7:30pm.

As a legal requirement under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, Thames Water need to increase the amount of sewage that can be treated during wet weather. A planning application, which will be submitted in the summer, will be for a new treatment stream to be located in the west of the works which will enable Mogden to have a peak flow capacity of a 1,064 megalitres per day compared to the current 690 megalitres per day.

A spokesperson for MRAG said, "if the site currently has no targets for odour reduction, is unable to identify or tackle current odour problems, what can we expect in terms of odour level increase and frequency if the site is expanded to cater for such a huge increase? Surely the results of the current odour improvement program should be evaluated on completion before any expansion of the site can be considered?."

MRAG have initiated legal action against Thames Water over the issue of odour and mosquitoes from the plant. They have recently been informed that they are unlikely to receive a judgment until towards the end of May. According to MRAG complaints against Thames Water for odour during April have doubled against the same period last year and Thames Water has refused to invite key members of the MRAG committee to its next residents' liaison meeting. Complaints started earlier than normal this year despite Thames Water spending £139,000 on mosquito control at the plant. MRAG say that the mosquitoes are appearing well beyond the 400 metre limit within which Thames Water will contribute towards residents' gully cleaning costs.

From Tuesday 8th May 07 Thames will be cleaning the Digester near the southern boundary, on the West Side of Mogden sewage treatment works. This cleaning work will involve pumping out the contents of the Digester and there may be an increase in odour while the work is carried out. The work will take place during the day (between the hours of 8am to 4pm) for two weeks, finishing by Tuesday 22 May. The work will not take place during the weekends.

May 10, 2007