Southern Water finally completed a major repair to a broken sewer on Friday last week after the burst was first detected in a rural area near Bognor on 16th May 2023.
The water company had specialist teams working round the clock to minimise any impact of the flooding on the environment, describing the massive tanker operation and repair work as “a challenging and complex operation” which involved teams working through the night.
The repair involved using 76 tankers - a record number for this type of operation. Southern Water said the tanker operation it had put in place served its purpose and the repair was made with out being forced to release wastewater into the environment. The tankers were used to safely remove wastewater from the network and from the flooded field for treatment at the utility’s sites.
Some tankers will still be kept on sites in the area as a contingency measure.
No sewage was released to the sea during this operation and a clean up operation on the field close to the burst is now underway.
During the operation Alex Saunders. Head of Wastewater Networks at Southern Water, said:
“We’re sorry for the continued noise and disruption from our tankers in Bognor. We’re repairing a large sewer in a field north of town and we must use the tankers to take wastewater to our treatment works to be safely treated.
“This is a large and complex operation which must be done absolutely right to protect the environment. There are as many as 58 tankers operating from different pumping stations which feed the broken pipe delivering waste to three different treatment works. This is one of our largest ever tanker operations.”
We’re working as quickly as is safe but there are no shortcuts.”
As a precautionary measure, Arun District Council decided to place warning notices on the shore at Middleton, Bognor and Felpham to provide members of the public with information about the incident.