Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works, Buckinghamshire
Published 27 February 2013
© Crown copyright 2013
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/little-marlow-sewage-treatment-works-buckinghamshire/little-marlow-sewage-treatment-works-buckinghamshire
Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works (STW) treats all the sewage from the Marlow, Bourne End and High Wycombe areas. Sewage is pumped to the STW and treated. The final effluent is discharged back to the River Thames and the River Wye.
The volume of waste water that Little Marlow STW receives will vary depending on how much rainfall there has been. It can take in, and treat around 120,000 cubic metres per day, equivalent in size to 120 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The flow into the STW is continuous; the works runs for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Thames Water has experienced a series of problems at the Little Marlow STW that have caused a range of pollution incidents over the past 6 months.
The Environment Agency is currently investigating why these events have occurred, and what impact they have had on the environment and local river users.
On the evening of Monday 12 August 2013, Thames Water sent a text to river clubs downstream of Little Marlow sewage treatment works to advise them that partially treated sewage had been discharged in to the Thames. The Environment Agency has inspected the site and checked the river. The quality of the effluent now being discharged meets the standards required in the environmental permit.
Latest update: November 2013
The Environment Agency has installed water-quality monitors around the outfall from the sewage treatment works. You can view the live data at the Meteor Data website
Contact
Report an incident to the Environment Agency on 0800 80 70 60
For non-urgent enquiries, please email: wtenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk