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Dirty.Business.S01E02 >>> https://dai.ly/xa0m0ri
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00:12Privatized water is a better deal than nationalized water, that the water privatization, I believe,
00:20will go very successfully indeed, that will go very successfully indeed, and perhaps therefore
00:26we have a better way to see, so that we can pontificate in the light of the fact.
00:53Lewis, Lewis, what did I tell you about that seaweed, do not throw it.
01:03Are you hungry?
01:07Ice cream! No! No, we just got here, you will.
01:10Yeah, we'll get it on the way back to the chalet, all right?
01:13Yeah, we'll get it, we'll get it back.
01:15I did, isn't it? I do promise you, I will, I promise.
01:27Lewis, wait please. Heather, stop!
01:30Bloody hell.
01:32Heather, I told you to stop, didn't I?
01:36Think that's poo?
01:37Of course, it's not poo.
01:41Oh, it stinks.
01:43It wasn't poo.
01:44It's not finished.
01:46Don't come in.
01:47Don't come in like that.
01:49How far shall I go?
01:50Go as far as you can.
01:52All right, love, all right, all right.
01:54And wash it off, scrub it.
01:56You what?
01:57Scrub it.
01:58Here, Heather.
01:59Have I got it?
02:00Don't you think?
02:01Yeah, you are.
02:02Don't, isn't that?
02:02Is it off her?
02:03You what?
02:04Is it off her?
02:05Yeah, I think so.
02:06Get a towel.
02:07Here, get her dry.
02:08Me?
02:09There you go.
02:09We've got a smelly little mermaid.
02:11Still smells that.
02:14Is that ticklish?
02:15Yeah.
02:16Do the other one.
02:17What about that one?
02:19No.
02:19No?
02:20Oh, look at that.
02:27Man, no!
02:36It was quite remarkable, really,
02:38that most of the freshwater fish,
02:41and England was just on the stretch.
02:44No, No, No.
02:44Most of it, most of it was including the chub.
02:46The chub came later, of course.
02:49They're gone.
02:50No, no.
02:50What, the chub?
02:51Well, the chub, the barbell, the eels, everything.
02:56Well, yes, I mean, the...
02:58The water's brown.
03:01You don't really think about the colour, um,
03:06when you see it every day.
03:08I mean, the brown here just seems normal.
03:11Yes, sir.
03:13Would Eileen still do that water vole register?
03:16No.
03:16That's, uh, no, that they're gone as well, aren't they?
03:22I mean, I remember when I first came here
03:25that it was crystalline, wasn't it?
03:50You never talk about your work.
03:52Well, I'd often, you know, it's part of the training.
03:56It's not sort of, you know, dinner conversation.
03:59It's not like I'm a Russian spy, am I?
04:02It's not like I'm, you know, not working for Putin, am I?
04:05That makes me wonder now. Why would you say that?
04:07Well, that's a bit...
04:08You investigated Ben Coppers, wasn't it?
04:11Yeah, 25 years.
04:12Well, come on.
04:13But 25 years, you must have...
04:14You must have some stories, wasn't you?
04:17Not really.
04:19Why don't you have the game pie?
04:20I don't like game pie.
04:22Should we get some mixed greens?
04:23No.
04:24I'm just having the soup and the crusty bread.
04:27That sounds nice.
04:28I don't think that's extra, is it?
04:29No, no, no.
04:30That's right, yes.
04:32Uh, there will have been some minor discoloration
04:35in one or two sections of the river.
04:39There's, um, there's been a discharge from the Burford Works.
04:43A discharge? Discharge of what?
04:46Uh, untreated sewage.
04:47Yeah, legally they're allowed to spill after heavy rainfall.
04:53So they can, they can, they can just do that, can't they?
04:56That's what he said.
04:57They're allowed to dump untreated sewage into the river
05:02right after heavy rain.
05:03But that, that can't be right, because it, it rains all the time.
05:07Well, heavy rain, he said.
05:08I don't remember any heavy rain, do you?
05:10You know, I'm gonna, uh, write to Thames Water
05:13and ask how many times they've put sewage into the river.
05:15Well, they're, they're not gonna tell you that.
05:17Oh, yeah, yeah, they've got to.
05:18What's the law?
05:20Dear Mr. Smith, no untreated sewage has been discharged
05:24into the river Windrush for the past three years.
05:27Untreated sewage mixed with treated sewage
05:30has been discharged 240 times.
05:33Kind regards.
05:34When did that come in?
05:35When did it come in that you could put untreated sewage
05:39into the river per se?
05:40I don't see how putting any kind of pathogens into the river
05:45could possibly be allowed.
05:46I mean, people are swimming in there.
05:48Dear Mr. Smith, in response to your request for information,
05:52please find attached the documents below.
05:54Kind regards.
05:56Wankers.
05:57This must be like one of your cases, mustn't it?
06:01All this.
06:03When you used to be a detective.
06:04No.
06:06But, you know, poisonous stuff in the river
06:09and we're not being warned about it?
06:11That, that'd be a, that'd be a scandal.
06:25It's a tummy bug.
06:2748 hour thing.
06:29Plenty of liquids.
06:30I'll give you some anti-sickness tablets
06:32just to stop the vomiting.
06:33OK.
06:36Hi, Dad.
06:38How many was it?
06:39The doctor said you got to take your medicine now.
06:42See.
06:44Close your eyes if you want, ma'am.
06:46Yeah, keep them closed.
06:47Here you go.
06:50Well, exactly.
06:51No, they said treated sewage mixed with untreated sewage
06:54240 times.
06:56Yeah.
07:10This is free jazz, is it?
07:12Oh, um, no, it's, it's not free jazz.
07:14It's, uh, contemporary jazz.
07:16And so they like free jazz.
07:18Right.
07:19And people pay money to listen to them.
07:21She's just come round to piss me off.
07:23No.
07:24I'm going to show you something.
07:26Look at this.
07:28So, uh, what is this?
07:29Uh, this is, uh, is this a reply from Thames Water?
07:32They're drowning me in numbers.
07:34Oh, I can see that.
07:35I mean, how are you supposed to make anything of that crap?
07:38Well, maybe, maybe that's what they're banking on.
07:40There's a needle in there somewhere.
07:41Just, you know, go through the haystack to find it.
07:43You're the Oxford Professor of Mathematics.
07:47No, uh, Computational Biology.
07:49It's not, um...
07:50Still math.
07:51It's not, it's machine learning, actually.
07:53So what's that like, AI?
07:55I know you're going to take the piss, but it's, it's a bit like free jazz.
07:58Oh!
08:00Depressing and pointless.
08:01Uh, no, no, there's rules.
08:04So there's a kind of order beneath the, the chaos.
08:07Um, and you've got to listen really hard, uh, for the patents.
08:12Why don't you just email me these and I'll, I'll take a look.
08:40Fuck me.
08:47These, what you've given me, they're, they're flow numbers.
08:50They track the sewage coming into the works and the rate at which is treated,
08:54so it's safe to go back into the river.
08:58But there's something weird about this.
09:01Yeah?
09:02What?
09:03Well, here, look.
09:05Now, on the 27th of December, the flow of treated effluent coming out of the works just stops.
09:13It just stops completely.
09:14Right, what do you mean, it stops?
09:16The flow, it just stops.
09:18There's no, there's no treated effluent going back into the river.
09:22So, two days after Christmas, the people of Burford stopped going to the toilet?
09:27No, no.
09:27See, this is it.
09:28Because the raw sewage is still going into the works, but there's nothing coming out.
09:37Now, that's, that's just not right.
09:42So, what do we do?
09:43I don't know.
09:44Well, you go back to them and say, give us a bit more detail.
09:46Is that Ashley and Peter?
09:48Yeah, yes, yes.
09:49Well, thanks so much for taking my call.
09:51It's Commander Aylard here.
09:54External Affairs and Sustainability at Thames.
09:57Richard, lovely to speak with you.
09:58Listen, I thought, well, why not get on the old dog and bone?
10:01Well, we appreciate your calling, thank you.
10:03Not at all.
10:03Having our feet held to the fire like this is the thing that keeps us focused.
10:06Yeah, we've, um, what we've been asking about this anomaly in the, uh, flow data.
10:11Um, on the 27th of December, there's no treated effluent going back into the river.
10:17Yeah.
10:17Nobody seems to be able to explain why that is.
10:20It's taken too long to get to the bottom of this.
10:22I've had to put some rockets up a few jaxes, frankly.
10:27Turns out the flow meters at Burford were, on the blink, heavy rain.
10:33Uh, the sewage flow was normal, but the, the sensors weren't generating any data.
10:40Uh, safe to assume, uh, the people at Burford did not stop discharging.
10:45Uh, the measurements were, uh, temporarily interrupted.
10:50It's weird.
10:52And we'd like to invite you on, uh, a tour of the Burford works.
10:57It's, it's just strange, isn't it, that, um, all of the sensors stopped working at that one point.
11:03We can't think of any other explanation, frankly, but, uh, you know.
11:06I won't be there, regrettably, but Leonie will be there, and you'll be in very good hands.
11:11You know, of course we'd like to do more, but the challenge is that Burford sewers are basically Victorian.
11:17Does anyone actually work here?
11:19It's an unmanned facility.
11:21It should be unpeopled, really, shouldn't it?
11:25Do they have unpeopled works in Victorian times?
11:28Good one, no.
11:29Um, but we do have a state-of-the-art network of sensors which, uh, track all the treated fluid
11:35and effluent through the works.
11:37So, um, nobody, nobody works here?
11:41The sensors automatically transmit data to our Waste Operation Control Centre in Reading 24 hours a day.
11:49Right.
11:49Oh, that's what we call the telemetry.
11:52And what happens if something breaks down?
11:56Oh, so our works are serviced by a team of mobile engineers.
12:00If a piece of kit malfunctions, a trigger will sensor an alarm, and an engineer is dispatched within two hours.
12:08Right.
12:10Oh, in here is where the engineers' logbooks live.
12:16They, uh, keep a record of anything that happens in one of these.
12:19But, um, stuff up here, this is the really exciting part.
12:21So this is all the live, real-time data being uploaded from the plants.
12:26Yes, I can see it's, uh, quite extensive, isn't it?
12:29You can see the information coming through, can't you?
12:34Mm, yeah.
12:35It's funny, cos, like, you know, all the data's being pumped out, you can see it, but actually no-one's
12:39looking at it.
12:40You could save a bit of electricity there, couldn't you?
12:43What's that over there? You've got, um, sort of cafe...?
12:46No, that is our dedicated breakout zones, you know, for teas, coffees, relaxation, um, yeah, any time.
12:54It's inviting, inviting, isn't it?
12:56Yeah, no, it's nice, I like it.
12:57It's just nobody's here to enjoy the tea, aren't you?
12:59Oh, no, no, well, thank God, that would mean something's going wrong.
13:05All right, thank you.
13:06Great.
13:07Yeah, great.
13:08Oh, sorry.
13:09There's a hole there.
13:10Yeah.
13:11Did anyone mention that we'd been invited to the town hall in Burford?
13:14The commander wants us all there.
13:16It's really exciting, actually.
13:18You know, we think it's important that we hold our hands up when mistakes are made.
13:25God.
13:26Did you see?
13:27See her face?
13:29Like, you do it like.
13:32I can't believe it.
13:33And we can ask for all the telemetry, and, you know, they've got to give it to us.
13:37That's, that's hundreds of thousands of data points, and everything that goes on in the works.
13:43Right, right, just, but try not to get too excited.
13:45Well, I'm just saying.
13:48I'm just saying, calm down.
13:55Okay, have you been giving her plenty of liquids?
13:58Yes.
13:59Been keeping her warm?
14:00Yes.
14:01Did everything you said.
14:02Okay, and are there any more symptoms?
14:05Yes.
14:05I've seen.
14:08She's been bleeding from her backside, Doctor.
14:10I'm calling an ambulance.
14:16So, look, I've got the telemetry for Burford, and I've deciphered the engineer's handwriting.
14:2427th of December, engineer's name is Michael Lazarus.
14:31It turns out here that at eight minutes past five, on the morning of the 27th, the alarm got triggered
14:39at the works, and the communications had failed.
14:43But it, it must have been intermittent, because at eight minutes past six, the centre got a message to say
14:50that both the main inlet pumps had failed.
14:55Then, at 16 minutes past eight, another alarm was triggered.
15:01The storm tank was overflowing.
15:05And that's when the dumping started.
15:09So, the pumps had packed up, the storm tank's overflowing, you've got three alarms sounding.
15:15Obviously, they dispatched an engineer.
15:19Not for five and a half hours.
15:22What?
15:26Wet pumps one and two.
15:28Both failed.
15:29Returned liquor pump.
15:30Failed.
15:30Balancing tank.
15:31Full.
15:32Untreated sewage tank.
15:33Full.
15:33Effluent chamber.
15:35Flooded.
15:37I don't need this shit.
15:45Storm tank's filled to the top.
15:47All the sewage is flushing into the river.
15:52Set.
15:59Return liquor pump.
16:00Reset.
16:01Return liquor pump.
16:01Might fail again.
16:04I don't know how long this is going to hold.
16:07Trying my best here.
16:10Everything's failing.
16:11He did what he could to patch things up.
16:13But by then, it's been dumping sewage into the wind rush for over five hours.
16:19Yeah, and we know, we know that there wasn't any heavy rainfall like Aylard said, because it didn't even rain
16:25on that day.
16:26Yeah.
16:27And then the oxidation tank failed on the 28th.
16:31The rotation arms packed up on the 29th.
16:35Burford was falling apart.
16:37They couldn't handle all the sewage it was taken in, so it was just flashing everything into the river.
16:42And I feel that Mickey's the kind of person who's in the habit of telling the truth, don't you?
16:47Yeah.
16:49What about Commander Aylard?
17:00The results are back from the lab.
17:03It's quite serious.
17:06Heather has been infected with E. coli.
17:10The most aggressive strain.
17:130157.
17:17We're going to keep her comfortable, keep an eye on her, and hope that it passes through.
17:21Do you sleep?
17:22No.
17:24It's possible that the virus could attack Heather's kidney functions, which might have serious consequences for other organs.
17:40This was really about a temporary malfunction to the alarm.
17:45We think at least partly caused by the heavy rainfall that day, rather than any actual interruption to the treatment
17:52process.
17:52So what I'd like to do...
17:54Sorry, can I say a few words, Commander?
17:58Yes, of course.
17:59There was no heavy rain.
18:02In fact, it didn't rain at all.
18:06If you'll bear with me, what I have here is the engineer's logbooks.
18:13The engineer is called Michael Lazarus.
18:16And what you can see from Mr. Lazarus's logs is that the alarms were in fact functioning as normal.
18:24They were triggered as soon as the flooding began.
18:28And the thing is, Mr. Lazarus was not dispatched to the works for more than five hours.
18:34The plant was falling apart.
18:36It couldn't treat the sewage it was taking in, and so it was just pumping it all out directly into
18:43the river.
18:47Well, thanks so much, Ash.
18:50And to you, Peter.
18:52It does look as though I've been misinformed.
18:55And I intend to get to the bottom of this.
18:58And I'll be putting my thumb on whoever...
19:02So what are you going to do about what these two gentlemen have said?
19:04What's going to happen now?
19:05I think that we are both shocked, absolutely shocked, to hear that information because we were...
19:12You said one thing.
19:13They've actually backed up with evidence something completely the opposite.
19:17Our river.
19:19You're just dumping it and just covering everything up.
19:23And making money.
19:24And what's the long-term problems for the wildlife, the fish and the birds?
19:29What's happening with those?
19:30The ecological welfare of our rivers and our waterways
19:33is something that we find incredible.
19:37And what are you doing?
19:38So that's why.
19:38Nothing.
19:40You're polluting our water.
19:41I wouldn't even let my dog scream in the river now.
19:44It's disgusting.
19:44It is our highest, highest priority that we will be fixing this as soon as possible.
19:50I can assure you, from all of us at Thames Water, we are working night and day.
19:56Well, I think you need to have a tea break.
19:57I do. I do as well.
19:58Thank you, sir.
19:59Thank you for your...
20:01Thank you very much for your meeting.
20:04Shall we go outside?
20:06Yes.
20:07I think he just lied to us.
20:10Just straight up and down to our faces.
20:12Oh, no.
20:12He said he was misinformed.
20:14Princess Diane's equerry.
20:16I mean...
20:16What is that, by the way?
20:18I don't...
20:18I don't know.
20:19It helps when people lie.
20:21It's how you know they've got something to hide.
20:40I mean, it's ammonia we need to keep an eye out.
20:43Because that's going to read high right after they've dumped the sewage.
20:47Fuck me.
20:48It's...
20:49It is actually like one of your cases, isn't it?
20:52Not really, no.
20:53It's more...
20:55Real-time monitoring of the river.
20:57And the outflow pipes as well.
21:01So the question is...
21:03Is Burford acting alone?
21:06Because there's what?
21:08Seven?
21:09Seven.
21:09Seven works along the Windrush.
21:12So we need to know if Burford is an outlier.
21:15You know?
21:15A single failing plant.
21:17Like a lone assassin.
21:19Just, you know, killing everything that lives in the water.
21:22Or...
21:22Or...
21:23Are they more like Burford?
21:24Well, I mean, I suppose I could order the...
21:26Order the telemetry and get it for all of them.
21:37Dear E.I.R. team,
21:40I would be grateful if you could supply...
21:43All the telemetry exchanges between the control centre...
21:48And the...
21:49Works at...
21:51North Beach...
21:52Church, Ambro,
21:53Whitney and...
21:55And...
21:56Norse City...
21:57Professor Peter...
22:00Hammond.
22:07I can't find a pulse.
22:13Is there nothing?
22:16That's weird.
22:23No, I can't feel anything.
22:25No.
22:26Somebody call for help?
22:27Get help.
22:27No, can we get a doctor in here, please?
22:36What have you done to your finger?
22:38Oh, I don't know.
22:41I woke up this morning, it was like that.
22:43Feels a bit weird.
22:44Well, don't you think that Jala should take a look at that?
22:46I mean, she is... she is a chemist, isn't she?
22:48I know she's a chemist.
22:49I live with her.
22:50Okay, so you know that they sent me all these...
22:52data flows from the works at Whitney and at Church Hamburger.
22:56Yeah.
22:57But what I've done, I've converted the programme that I built
23:00for the fetal alcohol kits.
23:07What happened there was that the mothers, they were being paid in wine,
23:11so most of their children had fetal alcohol syndrome.
23:16What I did was that I took...
23:18I took thousands of photographs of these FAS kits.
23:23And so, by showing the machine,
23:26hundreds of these faces of these unborn children,
23:28we taught it to spot the features of fetal alcohol syndrome
23:32in the womb.
23:41So, when the programme sees it in a scan,
23:44then it can tell the doctor straight away
23:46and then they can start, you know, helping the mother and the kid.
23:53Now, Burford does most of his heavy lifting during early morning,
23:57just before everyone goes to work.
23:58Right.
23:59And then again in the evening, when they come back home.
24:02So, you can see the flows of treated effluent
24:06hitting the daily peaks and troughs.
24:09Now, that's when the penny dropped.
24:11The thing is, that is just like the contours on a baby's face.
24:19By showing the machine nine years of this flow data,
24:24I've taught it to recognise when the usual flows,
24:27they don't... they don't show up.
24:31When the everyday flows are missing,
24:34well, they're not treating the sewage.
24:36And if they're not treating the sewage,
24:38there's nowhere for it to go?
24:40Except...
24:41In... into the river?
24:43Except into the river.
25:05We've decided to transfer Heather to the Bristol Hospital for Children.
25:11It's one of the best in the country.
25:13They'll be able to look after her there.
25:16It's getting bigger, I think.
25:19Have you been in the river again?
25:20Yeah, yeah.
25:21Did you have any cuts?
25:24Yeah, I...
25:25I pricked my finger on a thorn when I was setting up the camera.
25:28Before? After you went into the river?
25:30Before.
25:31Right.
25:34So if there's a pathogen in the water,
25:37you've given it direct entry into your bloodstream.
25:42Is that bad?
25:43It's bad.
25:45It's bad, you muppet.
25:46You need antibiotics.
25:49You know, a lot of sewage has drugs in it,
25:51and if they mix with bacteria,
25:55then the bacteria becomes antibiotic resistant,
25:59which means that the antibiotics might not work on you,
26:03so they might have to try different types of medication on you.
26:07Oh, God. Hold on.
26:13What's that? What are you doing?
26:15I'm just drawing on you.
26:18Why?
26:18Because if it gets bigger, then we will know.
26:22That looks worse now.
26:25So that's where she drew the marker,
26:27and that's how much bigger it's got in, like, two days.
26:30Bloody hell.
26:31And that is just from putting your hand in the river.
26:34Yep. I'm an idiot.
26:35Well, we know that, but, I mean,
26:38if it's doing that to your hand,
26:40just think about what it's doing to all the creatures
26:42that live in the river.
26:43Exactly.
26:43What was it you wanted to show me?
26:45Oh, yeah, well, you know,
26:46I got all this data through from North Leach.
26:49You know, we went to the Wheat Sheaf there.
26:51Oh, yeah.
26:52That was overpriced for what it was.
26:54Well, I mean, you thought so, but anyway, look,
26:56they must have sent this by mistake,
26:59because I'm pretty sure they haven't read it.
27:01Why? Why do you say that?
27:02Because it says here that the works at North Leach,
27:05they haven't treated any sewage for three and a half months.
27:09So, so either, either the good people of North Leach
27:12have been holding it in for three and a half months, or...
27:15Now, I know they did not do that,
27:17because I have the log books,
27:20and North Leach is on Michael Lazarus' beat.
27:27I fucking hate my life.
27:38Sight flooded due to come failure.
27:43Sight flooded for the fifth day running.
27:45Storm tank high alarm sounding for nearly 48 hours now.
27:50Storm pump failure alarm sounding for nearly four days.
27:54All four biofilters not rotating.
27:57No flow coming into the works.
28:00Power surges have badly affected all equipment on site.
28:04Serious plant failure.
28:08Generator not running.
28:10Ran in to get the site going.
28:12Oh, fuck's sake.
28:15Of course not.
28:16Yeah.
28:25The dust pack's completely full.
28:28Sight's still heavily flooded.
28:30Country sludge water out onto Stormland.
28:33Roadside flooding believed to have been caused by this.
28:38Oh, fuck off!
28:42Oh, for fuck's sake.
28:52Yeah, Liam.
28:53Yeah, listen, mate, I'm at North Leach.
28:56Power's gone, mate.
28:58Power's packed up.
28:58Generator's gone.
29:00Mate, it's gone.
29:01We can't treat sewage without any power.
29:04We're either backing up,
29:05or we're dumping it straight into the river.
29:08Oh.
29:10And Liam, mate,
29:12there's sewage coming up from the ground.
29:29Thames's own data shows North Leach hasn't treated any sewage for three and a half months.
29:34Yeah.
29:36So, look, there's two works, and they're a few miles of each other, both rotting into the sludge, both dumping
29:45illegally.
29:45We've got to get this to the Environment Agency.
29:48They've got prosecuting powers.
29:50What do you mean?
29:50Well, they don't have to show their evidence to the police.
29:53These are crimes.
29:54And they can prosecute privately.
29:57What, so they can just...
29:59just take temps to court?
30:00Yes.
30:01They're the sewage police.
30:03Uh-huh.
30:05Like, can anyone else do that?
30:07Post office.
30:08The post office?
30:09Yeah.
30:09It's unusual.
30:12I can see that, yeah, your swelling's gone down.
30:14Yeah, yeah, the antibiotics are kicking in.
30:17Thank God.
30:19And it's about keeping us a little bit more local.
30:24Sorry, I'm just going to fold this up, actually.
30:27We want to strip out as much unnecessary regulation as possible.
30:34So, under operator self-monitoring, we're going to be asking the water companies to monitor their own environmental performance,
30:44flagging any breaches to us as a priority.
30:47I...
30:48Sorry, I don't understand.
30:50So, um...
30:51You... you want water companies to monitor their own pollution?
30:56Yeah, it's about shifting the burden of regulation onto the companies
31:01and asking the water companies, if there's been a pollution, to give us the details.
31:08Hang on, hang on.
31:10Just... just to be clear,
31:13you want us to ask the water companies to tell us when they've dumped sewage.
31:21It's about pivoting away from...
31:24away from on-site inspections to a more desk-based approach.
31:30Yep, it's sort of streamlining our process.
31:33So you want us to stop visiting Sewage Works?
31:36No, no, no, no, we'll still be doing on-site inspections, yeah.
31:40Yeah, of course.
31:42Provided that we give the company two weeks' notice of our visit.
31:45Yeah, but that's a... that is a problem, because...
31:47Well...
31:47Sorry, again.
31:48Yeah.
31:49Um, but if we give the water companies two weeks' notice...
31:52..they'll just clean up before we get there.
31:55I mean, it's... it... it is an honour system, so...
31:58I... if the companies say that there hasn't been an incident,
32:02I... I don't think we should go looking for reasons to challenge that.
32:04So, what you're saying is, regulate yourselves,
32:09and then just let us know if you've committed any crimes?
32:16Yeah.
32:19Thanks so much.
32:20OK, see you.
32:21Mm-hm.
32:23Mm-hm.
32:27To Julia Simpson, Area Director, Environment Agency.
32:31Dear Julia, I live in Oxfordshire, near the River Windrush.
32:35My neighbour, Professor Peter Hammond, and I
32:37have been gathering evidence of sewage discharges
32:41into our river by Thames Water.
32:43We'd like to bring what we've learned to the attention of the Environment Agency.
32:47Dear Julia, we'd like to invite you to meet some members of our group
32:51to discuss issues of sewage pollution.
32:54Dear Julia, we are going to take a trip down the river on foot
32:58and by boat looking at possible sources of sewage pollution.
33:01Would the Environment Agency be interested?
33:04Dear Julia, we are still waiting for a suitable point of contact.
33:13Dear Ashley, the Department for the Environment
33:16will provide you with a full response by the 8th of June 2018.
33:21She's got an MBE.
33:23And a bloody big salmon.
33:27Why is she taking so long to get back to us?
33:30Doesn't she realise we're doing her job for her?
33:32I don't know.
33:33I might put in a complaint.
33:35I was going to try to open it up.
33:35I am going to try to keep her as she should.
33:42The one is reading the house in the middle is the end.
33:44Do not die for the middle.
33:46Wait.
33:49Do not be quite as they have the end.
33:50Do not step back to us.
33:53Do not stand back to us.
33:53But then...
33:54Do not stand back to us.
33:55I would like to look at us...
33:55Do not stand back to us.
33:55Do not stand back to us.
33:57Do not stand back to us.
34:19hello mr smith it's julia simpson from the environment agency i'm so sorry it's taken
34:25me so long to get back to you honestly waiting for death right it is maddening
34:29well we've found each other now we wanted to ask about how the agency monitors sewage dumps into
34:37the river spills yes well as you probably know we manage operator self-monitoring what operator
34:46self-monitor what's that yes it's for thames water to report any potential breaches you mean it's
34:53thames's job to tell you when they've dumped sewage to report potential pollution incidents yes
35:02what if they don't report them we would expect thames to report 100 of pollution incidents
35:08so it's not even your responsibility to inspect the works
35:15for well to see if they're working
35:20no absolutely we inspect the treatment works yes of course we do how often well we would inspect
35:27perhaps once every few days up to perhaps once every six months depending on the inspection team's
35:34judgment ash we're aware that there's been some discussion locally around water quality on the
35:40wind rush and in fact we just completed a new survey so i was thinking it would be a good
35:46idea for me to
35:47take up your invitation come down to the village hall and to go over some of the results
35:53so the good news is that our testing shows that there's no evidence that the wind rush is seriously
36:01polluted or that the quality of the water has declined we do know that the river is more brown
36:07these days but our evidence has shown that this brown color has got nothing to do with sewage
36:16sorry we've spoken earlier on the telephone i wonder if you could confirm something you told me then that
36:22um the agency inspects all the works along the wind rush between every two to three days
36:28and every six months yes that's right professor peter hammond and i'm also part of this uh
36:34well wind rush group a colleague of yours told me that actually you only inspect once every eight
36:42years and also i've just been listening i've been i've been running uh your your figures and um so you've
36:51only done about half of the inspections that you needed to have been doing in fact you've only been
36:56visiting the works once every 16 years we also took a look at your water quality tests
37:05and the thing is they were all carried out upstream from all the major sewage works it's almost as if
37:11you've chosen the cleanest part of the river to conduct your test the river is actually devoid of
37:20anything in there the fish and all the wildfire and everything that reads on from that from your king
37:27fishers do everything you've absolutely ruined this place and you should be bloody well ashamed of yourself
37:37and the watercrest beds you destroyed the watercrest beds as well that used to be a source of
37:44industry years ago totally gone we will be taking all your feedback into consideration i will have to
37:51go away and we will listen to your feedback i promise you thank you
38:22uh is it mr lazarus my name's ash smith this is my colleague professor peter hammond
38:29we're doing some research on thames water and uh listen it's all off the record
38:35you're not disclosing the names of anyone we talked to we wondered if you could spare 10 minutes
38:50people call me mickey first thank you very much for coming here i know it's not easy so we appreciate
38:54sharing so much i can't tell you i'm not a grass okay so i did grass on my mate like
39:00in year eight
39:00back of the day but this is different from grassing right this is like blowing the whistle i told you
39:04i'm an ex-copper yeah you've told me that as well that's made me this this is not grassing is
39:08like
39:09when you grass your mates and blowing the whistle whistle blowing is when you like grass on your boss
39:14right we will start um all right check this out most water companies get sold every 10 years or so
39:24jp morgan morgan stanley kuwait sovereign fund chinese banks we've had them all made
39:38so um macquarie bought us in 2006 that's the that's the australian hedge fund it's known as the
39:45millionaire's factory such are the reputed riches of many of macquarie's key executives the vampire
39:51kangaroo that's it and they've earned that name because they are blood suckers leading companies rely
39:55in macquarie for advice access to capital the first thing they did was sell our offices and then rent
40:02them back to us what wrongans they make del boy look like a amateur then they said that we had
40:08to get
40:08management clearance to buy pens right to the top to buy a biro not even a parker not a fancy
40:16pen
40:16just a normal pen piss take all right now let's say this right a pipe's broken what you do normally
40:23you take it out you put a new one in they would tell us to stick a collar around it
40:28it's not gonna
40:29hold what's a collar it's just like sticking plaster it's not gonna hold it's a temporary fix
40:33the pipe's still rotten okay it's gonna go again it's a box job it's like frankenstein why why don't
40:39they want to do it properly why don't they want to spend money and seal it properly they don't give
40:43up monkeys about the works you know why because they're gonna flip you if they don't want to spend any
40:49money on it how are they going to maintain your works they don't give a shit you know why they're
40:55like dodgy house flippers they're gonna go in there it's still rotten inside and they flip it
40:59they're out that's why i bang for macquarie macquarie when they flogged us they walked away with around
41:062.8 billion quid it's scandalous
41:12so how do you know all this then mickey i started working for thames when i was 16.
41:16right on my second day i joined the union i get people ringing me up every day mickey it's all
41:23falling apart we can't keep it going pete if you were there working there you're an engineer
41:29you know and the pumps ain't working you're at capacity what's your best option well the best
41:34option obviously is just to get rid of the sewage i suppose the only the only option is to press
41:41the
41:41button that flushes it all out i'm not proud to admit that and i feel guilty you know i see
41:49people
41:50swimming in the in these rivers and they let their kids swim in the rivers what am i supposed to
41:54do i
41:55know what goes in there i put it in there we're at tipping point here fellas so we have run
42:05the brain
42:05tests heather's brain has lost the ability to control her vital organs and unfortunately they are failing
42:15i'm really very sorry but i think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators
42:28so
43:08Dear Professor Hammond,
43:11I'm a member of Citizens Against Southwest Water.
43:14We formed a year ago to fight the company's sewage dumping in our bit of Devon.
43:19One of our group was recently given these, which we thought you should see.
43:29A girl of eight may have been the first person in Britain to have contacted fatal E. coli poisoning from
43:37raw sewage.
43:38Ten other people, including four children, who all visited the beach on July the 28th,
43:45were also struck down by the same bacterial strain.
43:51Heather Preen died of E. coli.
44:04If you'd like, we could bring her over to you.
44:07Here we go.
44:11Here we go.
44:13All right.
44:14Here we go.
44:16All right.
44:17I'll just leave you together for a little while now, okay?
44:25All right, brother.
44:38You're all right.
44:42You're all right.
44:44You're all right.
44:55You're all right.
45:03You're fine.
45:04We're back.
45:05It's okay.
45:06We're fine.
45:07Come on.
45:39I'll kill you.
45:41You're sorry.
45:42I'll kill you.
45:42You're sorry about getting in.
45:54All right.
45:55Let me see.
46:09So, you know how I taught the machine to look for the anomalies
46:14in Whitney and Church Hamburger?
46:16Yeah, right.
46:17Well, have you been free-jazzing your numbers again?
46:20Well, it's actually a lot of hard work, you know.
46:22No, oh, no, sorry.
46:23Just looking for the patterns and spotting the deviations.
46:26Yeah, right.
46:27And you know that...
46:28You do know that when the machine sees an abnormality,
46:32it can only mean one thing,
46:33that it's dumping sewage.
46:35Yes.
46:36Okay, so, in the nine years that I have data for,
46:41these two works alone, Whitney and Church Hamburger,
46:45they've dumped sewage a thousand times.
46:51These aren't accidents, Ash.
46:54It's a policy.
46:58This is starting to look like organised crime.
47:23You say you've got insufficient evidence, but we keep giving you the evidence.
47:27All we ever do is give you the evidence.
47:29If you don't know what caused the infection, then you need to shut down the beach.
47:33That's not going to happen.
47:34I wonder if we should be calling it an outbreak.
47:36I feel like the kind of term that could alarm people.
47:38We are conducting an investigation under section 108 of the Environmental Health.
47:43Close the beach before this happens to somebody else.
47:46With their kids, with fishing nets, sitting amongst turds.
47:50Reuben!
47:52Reuben!
47:53Come on.
47:54Reuben!
47:55I need another whistleblower.
47:58Reuben!
48:00Reuben!
48:05Reuben!
48:06Reuben!
48:07Reuben!
48:09Reuben!
48:10Reuben!
48:11Reuben!
48:13Reuben!
48:14Reuben!
48:17Reuben!
48:19Reuben!
48:20Reuben!
48:21Reuben!
48:23Reuben!
48:24Reuben!
48:26Reuben!
48:26Reuben!
48:27Reuben!
48:27Reuben!
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