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Environment Agency Wales urges local residents to check their drainage

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15 July 2011

Environment Agency Wales urges local residents to check their drainage
15-Jul-2011
Environment Agency Wales is urging residents who live in Mynydd Isa near Mold to prevent pollution from damaging local streams by checking their drainage.

Environment officers have investigated reports of sewage pollution to two streams in the area. These drain into the River Alyn, which is popular with anglers and other water users.

A Welsh Water survey of the drains using CCTV cameras showed the pollution is not caused by the sewerage system. Environment Agency Wales now believes the pollution is caused by houses with wrongly connected drains where a washing machine, sink, shower or even toilet has been connected to the clean water drainage system. This is known as a misconnection.

If any of these pipes are wrongly connected to the clean water system, foul water from homes will get into the local stream causing pollution.

Lyndsey Rawlinson from Environment Agency Wales said: “We urge local people to check that their plumbing is connected properly and to fix any misconnections.

“We will be visiting houses in the area with environmental health officers from Flintshire Council to find any wrongly-connected drains and explain how to fix it. We are keen to work with local people to tackle these misconnections and prevent further pollution in the area.”

Further information
People can find further information on misconnections by visiting www.connectright.org.uk

What you can do to help
People can help the environment by reporting any incidents of pollution, illegal tipping of waste, poaching, fish in distress, or danger to the natural environment to the Environment Agency, via its 24 hour free phone number 0800 80 70 60.

The hotline operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls are free from a landline and mobiles are charged at their normal network rate. Information is treated in the strictest confidence.