A stream polluted by a third-party blockage

A member of the public reported pollution in a field to Severn Trent. Investigations revealed that this had been caused by blocked sewer pipes filled with fats, oils, and grease (FOG). We were asked to determine the source of the FOG and to help make sure this didn’t happen again.

Visits to nearby food businesses helped us to identify why a blockage had occurred. A pub restaurant had an undersized passive grease trap which wasn’t doing its job. This caused the FOG to build up and with nowhere to go, the sewer contents had spilt over into a field and a stream.

We worked with the food service establishment to install correctly sized grease trapping equipment and recovered the costs incurred because of the blockage. The Environment Agency was also notified that the pollution was down to a third-party and not our client.