Sewage in 200 tankers taken to town, council hears

The odour from the untreated sewage forced Camberley residents to stay inside with windows shut during the summer

More than 200 tankers of sewage were shipped to a Surrey town to save a water supplier millions in pollution fines, a committee has heard.

Surrey Heath Borough Council challenged Thames Water on how 12,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage was left to plague Camberley residents over the summer.

However, the water firm said it prevented pollution trucks "potentially exploding".

They have apologised "unreservedly" and said they have made organisational improvements since.

In February, sewage was shipped into Camberley Sewage Works from London, Hampshire and Surrey, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

By March, two 6,000-cubic metre tanks were “completely full”.

The committee heard odour suppression was in place but it was not constant and did not cover the entire tank, which had maintenance issues.

The tanks remained untreated until August and were cleared in late September.

The water supplier - who recorded a total revenue of £2.3bn last year - have apologised "unreservedly" at the meeting on 28 November

James Bentley, operations director at Thames Water, said the company had experienced an "extreme sludge event" and the whole system was overloaded.

“If we didn’t move the sludge we’d have pollution trucks potentially exploding," a colleague added.

Mr Bentley said: “We didn’t get everything right in that process and we’re not here to pretend that we did.”

Local councillor Rob Lee said the water supplier acted in "shareholders' best interest".

He said: “It clearly saved Thames Water in material terms millions, if not tens of millions of pounds, so I think we need to start exploring that avenue.”