Crisis as sewage spills into Firth of Forth
Pastor Dale Morgan
Crisis as sewage spills into Firth of Forth*
By Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 12:54am BST 23/04/2007
Engineers were last night working to halt one of Scotland's worst
environmental disasters, after millions of litres of raw sewage ran into
the Firth of Forth.
Local people were being warned not to enter the water or pick up fish
from the shore as much of Edinburgh's waste flowed untreated into the
estuary for the third day.
The spill began on Friday after a mechanical failure at the Seafield
treatment plant in the Leith area of the city.
At one point over the weekend, one thousand litres of untreated waste
were leaking from the plant every second.
Last night, Jack McConnell, Scotland's First Minister, called for an
urgent inquiry into the disaster.
Opposition parties claimed that Seafield plant needed extra investment
and questioned if such an important facility should have been built and
maintained under the controversial private finance initiative. Edinburgh
council gave a warning that the high levels of raw sewage released into
the water could be a health risk to both humans and animals.
Gordon Greenhill, head of community safety at Edinburgh City Council,
said: "Raw sewage obviously has E.coli and the implications for the
young and elderly are always there."
He added that it was "difficult" to quantify the risk.
He said that once the flow of sewage was stemmed it was expected that it
would disperse and be diluted in the North Sea.
The council has put up warning notices along the shore in areas which
may potentially be affected and concerned locals are being advised to
contact the city's environmental health service.
The Forth estuary is tidal as far as Stirling and a number of towns line
the shore, including Inverkeithing and Kirkcaldy.
As well as a popular family beach destination, the area is also home to
a range of wildlife and a bird sanctuary.
Thames Water, which runs Seafield for Scottish Water, said it decided
not to shut the plant down on Friday as it dealt with most of the waste
from Scotland's capital, a population of about 800,000.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency said that it had put
emergency measures in place to "minimise the pollution".
Residents claimed that the spillage was a "disaster waiting to happen".
Rob Kirkwood, chairman of Leith Links Residents' Association, told BBC
Radio Scotland, that local people were "extremely angry, but not surprised".
He said: "We've been telling the Labour and Lib Dem government and
Edinburgh Council that Seafield is a disaster waiting to happen.
"It (the sewage works) has an infrastructure that is basically third
world technology."
Leith residents have long campaigned against the so-called Seafield
"stench" that emanates from the plant.
The Scottish Greens last night demanded urgent investment at the plant.
Mark Ballard, for the party, said: "Seafield is one of the Scottish
Executive's flagship PFI projects. This huge spill into the Forth must
raise serious concerns about the way the plant has been funded, managed
and operated under the 30-year private contract."
Richard Lochhead, Scottish National Party environment spokesman, said
the spillage "raised serious questions over viability of the PFI scheme
that was used to install and manage the treatment facilities at Seafield".
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservative deputy leader, said the incident was
a "catastrophe" for the local environment. He said that water should no
longer be kept under public control and that privately-owned water
companies in England and Wales offer better quality services at a
cheaper price.
Mr McConnell issued a robust defence of the plant's funding.
He said: "The problems at Seafield this weekend have not been caused by
the financing mechanism funding for the construction of the site, but
has been by mechanism failure."