Corporate denial- Blame it on everyone else-Severn Trent Water pollute Smethwick Hall Park again!

So after five years, we come again to this unresolved issue of a failed privatised water company, unable to stop it claims, houses that are misconnected to their asset pouring vile water and other detritus into this small pool in Smethwick. In 2019 Smethwick Hall Park saw raw sewage enter the lake resulting in the deaths of dozens of birds.

This pollution as it transpired had been happening for several years before this, as an FOI request to The Environment agency revealed. 

Here’s a reminder of what the EA found when they tested the sediment back in June 2019. And also what they reported officially at the time of the incident.

The catchment for this brook which enters at Margaret Gardens is claimed to be large, and runs through both culverted and unculverted sections including the allotments in Manor Road. We know that this has seen sewage as well as oil like substances pollute the lake and impact birds terribly. For much of that time, we have been fighting a battle without any political help.

There are numerous strands to this story, and so first the latest issue, where not long after spotting a dead mallard in the water, I then saw several ill birds as well as dead ones a few days later. This and the clinical signs are typical botulism- as was the case in 2019. The water stank of washing machines and was white at the outlet where it enters the pool.

A goose, a couple of coots and two ducks were rescued alive, with others picked up dead on the island. It was clear that the lake supposedly desilted in part by an SMBC contractor after STW shafted the council and turned down a £250,000 bid to their so called “community fund” was not a very good job I am afraid to say. The silt levels are too high, and in the dirty bath attempt at an interceptor to call it, this I had to complain about at the time of these works was not done because the mechanical digger could not get in there properly. This was later done by shovelling it out by hand, but it needs to be done regularly I believe due to the garbage that settles in here from the STW asset. Another problem is that the contaminated material was just banked to land. This was not the right thing to do with regards to botulism, which remains in soil and can reactivate in hotter conditions. Worms enter soil, birds eat the worms, and thus begins the process again.

BOTULISM – The true manmade pandemic affecting wild birds. 

The fact is is that these deaths do not occur on all pools in the summer, and do not occur as a result of “climate change” or anything else. They occur due to linked pollution events where sewage and human waste enters waters where it never should have and this then starts the poisoning of the environment by the die off of small invertebrates which are then ingested by the wildfowl.

 

Severn Trent water and their ghastly lies. 

The sign below was put up by this failed water company after the 2019 shit show. It claims that it wants people to help them protect the environment by calling their number to report issues. What the reality is is that if they report issues to the EA before the EA report issues to them they can escape being fined more heavily. Never ring Severn Trent. Report matters to the EA direct on 0800 80 70 60. 

When you do report matters to them, they claim it is not they who are responsible for the pollution- hence private residencies polluting with misconnections should be dealt with and enforced by the EA.

I have so far put in two complaints to STW, and I am still awaiting someone called James- “catchment lead” to call me, this after being stated I would be contacted within 24 hours. This did not happen. This Jimbo is obviously aware of the longstanding issue, given someone by that name is named on the 2019 incident report. (See top of this post). 😮

For show, this turned up and appears to be a sub contractor of STW, no doubt to try to collate data to get them off the hook. Follow the money and who pays for the science rather than the science is what I would say.

Sandwell council at my request have now put up better signage rather than “report dead birds”, which suggests that the birds may be dying from avian flu, to an uninformed public.

Just to be clear, there is no avian flu circulating in the country or the area, as I have repeatedly pointed out. Just 14 cases in the UK recorded this year in wild birds and none since April which puts it in line with 2020 records.

Check this fact out at the link below.

Avian influenza in wild birds: 2024 – GOV.UK (publishing.service.gov.uk)

This all comes as recent reports reveal increases in sewage releases into waterways. 

Garfield’s Severn stench racked up a recorded 440,000 hours of spillages of sewage, the fourth worst. SO LET US HAVE A LITTLE MORE SINCERITY ON THE INCREASE IN BOTULISM ISSUES IN WILD BIRDS RATHER THAN FAKE AVIAN FLU. 

Meeting with STW and others in 2019 for context

I am now putting on public record a meeting which took place at Shidas Lane organised by Sandwell council after the issue arose in 2019. This meeting was attended by several organisations, and it is noted that the EA were conspicuous by their absence- just like their environmental protection and attendance at incident reports like this.

This gives information as to what STW were claiming back then, and some points I would like to clarify.

V 2 Park Pools meeting notes 26.11.2019 (2)

“TB presented slides which showed mis connections/intermittent connections, 1400 properties in the current catchment area.  Severn Trent currently undergoing continued investigations reliant on weather conditions working with SMBC to gain entry where necessary.”

This was at the time when these two claimed to be working together. 

“TB produced map showing scale of pool and feeds into the pool area. TB stated depth of pool is shallow reducing oxygen levels, in turn warms the water quicker.”

I would certainly agree with this statement, but it ignores the fact that debris is coming out of the STW asset. 

“TB clarified avian botulism not found in domestic sewage.”

This is a typical non denial denial. Sewage creates avian botulism in pools such as this where conditions exist. To claim that sewage does not contain avian botulism is not the issue here, but it attempts to divert attention away from the lie that it is not causing the bird deaths. 

“IC stated that raw sewage had entered pool water as described in National incident Reporting Scheme ( NIRS) reports he had obtained via FOI from the Environment agency , and was also present in the silt, as confirmed by the tests carried out by the environment agency taken at the last meeting, Further explaining that human excrement was found in this water and he gave examples of bird deaths in pool containing raw sewage.”

All of this information is in the public domain already and on many blog posts on this website. 

Of particular interest with sources is where I corrected STW’s lying spin about sewage and its interface with botulism. 

“TB stated Severn Trent were not eliminating that the misconnections had contributed to the poor water quality which, in turn, had contributed to the bird deaths.”

So in a nutshell, here we have a STW employee state the truth that misconnections CAN cause the birds serious harm, but in a totally disingenuous way. 

The statement below from the APHA is of great interest regards avian flu deaths and cases in the UK over the last few years.

It should be stated that just as “avian flu” testing was ramped up in the UK, so avian botulism testing appears to have been shelved. I am certain that many many birds that died from botulism have been falsely attributed to AI as the ludicrous twats at Birmingham City Council attempted to do to cover up their shite abysmal management of lakes. 

As someone with over 25 years of monitoring birds, I consider myself fully competent at diagnosing clinical signs of botulism. Many of the birds caught alive have made full recoveries, based on being identified early. 

A subsequent request to SMBC later on from this meeting revealed what STW had claimed to have done up to that point.

“Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to you, we are still waiting for a formal response letter to be sent through regarding the issues discussed in our meeting with STW in early September. We contacted them to chase this and at the same time asked them for an update regarding the current situation with misconnections.

The information provided by STW is as follows:

• STW are still working on identifying misconnections and to date have surveyed 181 properties with a further 61 properties remaining  to be surveyed. Since our last meeting with them they have surveyed 36 properties.

• Out of the properties surveyed, 11 misconnections have been formally identified, to date 3 have now been corrected. STW are still waiting for residents at the remaining 8 properties to rectify their identified misconnections.

• STW have installed 3 cages on the system to catch any debris that might be flowing through to the pool, we understand that these are being maintained every 2 weeks. The cages/ screens are a temporary measure while they are still surveying surrounding properties.

In addition to the above update, we can also confirm that contractors have carried out the additional sediment removal that you highlighted during our site visit.”

THIS WAS 2021, SO WHAT DID STW DO SINCE THIS, AND HOW MANY MISCONNECTIONS ARE THEY CLAIMING ARE STILL PRESENT? 

PERHAPS IT IS TIME THE POLITICAL LEADERS AT SANDWELL COUNCIL IF THERE ARE ANY, STARTED ASKING SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS OF THE SCUM FROM COVENTRY?