Posted on 09/01/2014 1:39:32 PM PDT by Gamecock
Thames Water workers have been blasting a fatberg the length of a Boeing 747 underneath a road in west London. A ‘fatberg’ – a congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and other litter wrongly put down drains and toilets – formed under a 80 metre stretch of Shepherd’s Bush Road.
"A team of sewer experts from the company fought the ‘berg all last week The immense, solid blockage needed to be broken up and removed from the sewer to prevent sewer flooding to nearby homes and business." – Thames Water
But Shepherd's Bush is far from being the worst offender when it comes to fatbergs. Kingston-on-Thames had a 15-tonne fatberg removed from a sewer last year. But top of the fatberg league is Harrow, with a staggering 13,417 blockages reported in the last five years. Shepherd’s Bush trails behind with just 68.
“Wet wipes cling to the fat. Fat clings to the wipes. And pretty soon your fatberg is out of control and sewage is backing up into roads, gardens and in the worst cases flooding up through toilets and into homes.“We’ve found all sorts in this sewer – from tennis balls to planks of wood . It goes without saying they shouldn’t be in those pipes. London – bin it, don’t block it.” – Dave Dennis, Thames Water sewer operations manager
clogged up with fat, wet Democrats.
Thank you, you have greatly increased my knowledge. I lived in England for several years and only knew that 1 stone = 14 pounds. I didn’t know the hundredweight/ton part.
On the local San Antonio, TX news they showed one of those wet wipe cloggoramas that had caused a massive sewer overflow. It was forty feet long, and just a tangle of wet wipes..
It’s like they just keep growing into this twisty huge monstrosity.
I’ll bet you would be a big plus on a trivia team ...
Looks like the monthly harbor cleanup at the Ala Wai (Honolulu).
While passengers and crew were safely removed by rescuers, all attempts at freeing the trapped vessel were doomed to fail as the fatberg began to shift with the turning tide.
"Cause some union guy might have to do da maintenance work every day. 'Dis way, we can stick it to da City for da overtime." :)
It really wasn’t a problem until the wonderful innovation of the low flow toilet and water saving show heads. If the sewage keeps moving it doesn’t get the change to form up like that.
All while jiggling, making gloopy noises, and generally being blobbish.
:)
This was only the tip of the fatberg.
They should be careful...that could be algore.
It makes sense to conserve the water in California and Las Vegas? But in the east coast where water is plentiful?
Thank you for the explanation. It is amazing how the marketing claims that wipes are “flushable” can cause such havoc to the taxpayer. You don’t hear the greenies going after this.
Reminds me of a cartoon I saw where there’s a German Shepard flushed down a toilet and the plumber goes “ well there’s your problem, right there”....
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