- 8 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:12The
00:12privatized water is a better deal than nationalized water.
00:17That the water privatization, I believe, will go very successfully indeed,
00:23that will go very successfully indeed.
00:25And perhaps therefore we have yet a way to sea so that we can pontificate in the light of the
00:30fact.
00:51Lewis! Lewis! What did I tell you about that seaweed? Do not throw it!
01:01You hungry?
01:05Ice cream? No! We just got here, you want it?
01:08Yeah, we'll get it on the way back to the shallow, alright?
01:11Yeah, we'll get it back. It's dead, isn't it?
01:13I did promise you. I will. I promise.
01:24The girls way through.
01:26Heather, stop!
01:29Heather, I told you to stop, didn't I?
01:32Do you think that's poo?
01:34Of course, it's not poo.
01:36Oh, it stinks.
01:39It wasn't poo.
01:41Love!
01:42Don't come in.
01:43Don't come in like that.
01:45Can I wash it like that?
01:46Go as warm as you can.
01:48Alright, love, alright.
01:49I'll see you in there.
01:50Wash it off, scrubby!
01:52You what?
01:53Scrubby!
01:53Hey, Heather!
01:54Have I got it?
01:55Down, you think?
01:56No, you are!
01:57It's a donut, no.
01:57Is it upper?
01:58You what?
01:59Is it upper?
02:00Yeah, I think so.
02:01You're the donut.
02:01Get a towel.
02:02Yeah, get a joint.
02:04We've got a smelly little mermaid.
02:06It still smells, that.
02:09That tickly?
02:10Yeah.
02:11Say the other one.
02:12How about that one?
02:13No.
02:14No?
02:14Oh, look at that.
02:29It was quite remarkable, really.
02:31It was most of the fresh water fish burning.
02:35It was just on this stretch.
02:37Oh, gosh, mercy.
02:37That was including the chub.
02:39The chub came later, of course.
02:42They're gone.
02:43What, the chub?
02:44Well, the chub, the barbell, the eels, everything.
02:48Well, yes, I mean, the water's brown.
02:53You don't really think about the colour when you see it every day.
03:00I mean, the brown here just seems normal.
03:03So, would Eileen still do that water bowl register?
03:08No.
03:08That's, uh, no, that day long as well.
03:14I mean, I remember when I first came here, it was crystalline, wasn't it?
03:40You never talk about your work.
03:42Well, I'd often, you know, it's part of the training, it's not sort of, you know, dinner conversation.
03:48It's not like I'm a Russian spy, am I?
03:51It's not like I'm, you know, working for Putin, am I?
03:55That makes me wonder now.
03:56Why would you say that?
03:57That's a bit, you investigated Ben Coppers, wasn't it?
04:00Yeah, 25 years.
04:01Well, come on, but 25 years, you must have, you must have some stories, wasn't you?
04:06Not really.
04:08Why don't you have the game pie?
04:09I don't like game pie.
04:10Shall we get some mixed greens?
04:12No.
04:12I'm just having the soup, and the crusty bread, that sounds nice.
04:16Maybe it sounds extra, is it?
04:18No, no, no.
04:18That's right, yes.
04:20Er, there will have been some minor discoloration in one or two sections of the river.
04:27There's, erm, there's been a discharge from the Burford Works.
04:31A discharge?
04:32Discharge of what?
04:33Er, untreated sewage.
04:34Yeah, legally they're allowed to spill after heavy rainfall.
04:40So they can, they can, they can just do that, can't they?
04:43That's what you said.
04:44They're allowed to dump untreated sewage into the river right after heavy rain.
04:50But that, that can't be right, because it, it rains all the time.
04:53Well, heavy rain, you said.
04:55I don't remember any heavy rain, do you?
04:57You know, I'm gonna, er, write to Thames Water and ask how many times they've put sewage into the river.
05:02Well, they're not gonna tell you that.
05:03Oh, yeah, yeah, they've got to.
05:04What's the law?
05:06Dear Mr. Smith, no untreated sewage has been discharged into the river Windrush for the past three years.
05:13Untreated sewage mixed with treated sewage has been discharged 240 times.
05:18Kind regards.
05:19When did that come in?
05:20When did that come in?
05:21When did it come in that you could put untreated sewage into the river per se?
05:25I don't see how putting any kind of pathogens into the river could possibly be allowed.
05:31I mean, people are swimming in there.
05:32Dear Mr. Smith, in response to your request for information, please find attached the documents below.
05:39Kind regards.
05:40Wankers.
05:41This must be like one of your cases, mustn't it?
05:45All this.
05:46When you used to be a detective.
05:49But, you know, poisonous stuff in the river and we're not being warned about it?
05:54That'd be a scandal.
06:08It's a tummy bug, 48 hour thing, plenty of liquids.
06:13I'll give you some anti-sickness tablets just to stop the vomiting.
06:15Okay?
06:19Hi, darling.
06:19Oh, shit.
06:20How many was it?
06:21The doctor said you got to take your medicine now.
06:24I see.
06:26Close your eyes if you want them.
06:28Yeah, keep them close.
06:29Here you go.
06:31Well, exactly.
06:33No, they said treated sewage mixed with untreated sewage 240 times.
06:37Yeah.
06:50It's free jazz, is it?
06:52Oh, um, no, it's not free jazz.
06:55It's, uh, intemporary jazz.
06:56It's like free jazz.
06:58Right.
06:59And people pay money to listen to them.
07:01She's just come around to piss me off.
07:04No.
07:04I'm gonna show you something.
07:06Look at this.
07:07So, uh, what is this?
07:09So this is, uh, is this a reply from Thameswater?
07:12They're drowning me in numbers.
07:13Oh, I can see that.
07:14I mean, how are you supposed to make anything of that crap?
07:17Well, maybe, maybe that's what they're banking on.
07:19There's a needle in there somewhere.
07:21Just, you know, go through the A-stack to find it.
07:23You're the Oxford professor of mathematics.
07:26No, computational biology.
07:28It's not, um...
07:29Still math.
07:30It's nice machine learning, actually.
07:32So what's that like, AI?
07:33I know you're gonna take the piss, but it's, it's a bit like free jazz.
07:36Oh!
07:38Depressed and un-pointless.
07:39Uh, no.
07:40No, no.
07:41There's rules.
07:42So there's a kind of order beneath the, the chaos.
07:46Um, and you've gotta listen really hard, uh, for the patents.
07:49Why don't you just email me these and I'll, I'll take a look.
07:57Boo!
08:15The
08:22me these what you've given me that they're flow numbers they track the sewage coming into the
08:28works and the rate which is treated so it's safe to go back into the river but there's something
08:35weird about this yeah well well here look now on the 27th of december the flow of treated effluent
08:45coming out of the works just stops it just stops completely right what do you mean it stops the
08:51flow it just stops there's no there's no treated effluent going back into the river so two days
08:57after christmas the people of burford stopped going to the toilet no no see this is it because
09:03the raw sewage is still going into the works but there's nothing coming out
09:11now that's that's just not right so what do we do i don't know let me go back to them
09:18and say give
09:19us a bit more detail is that ashley and peter yeah yes yes well thanks so much for taking my
09:24call
09:24it's commander a lot here external affairs and sustainability at 10th richard lovely to speak
09:30with you listen i thought well why not get on your dog well we appreciate your calling thank you not
09:35at all having our feet held to the fire like this is the thing that keeps us focused yeah we've
09:39um
09:39what we've been asking about this anomaly in the uh flow data um on the 27th of december there's no
09:46treated effort going back into the river yeah nobody seems to be able to explain why that is it's taken
09:52too long to get to the bottom of this i've had to put some rockets up a few jacks frankly
09:58turns out
09:59the flow meters at burford were on the blink heavy rain uh the sewage flow was normal but the
10:06the sensors weren't generating any data uh safe to assume the people of burford did not stop
10:14discharging uh the measurements were temporarily interrupted
10:20it's weird and she'd like to invite you on uh a tour of the burford works it's it's just strange
10:28isn't it that um all of the sensors stopped working at that one point we can't think of any
10:33other explanation frankly but uh you know i won't be there regrettably but leonien will be there and
10:38you'll be a pretty good house you know of course we'd like to do more but the challenge is that
10:43burford sewers are basically victorian does anyone actually work here it's an unmanned facility
10:49doubt should be unpeopled really shouldn't it do we have unpeopled works in victorian times
10:56good one no um but we do have a state-of-the-art network of sensors which uh track all
11:02the treated
11:03fluid and effluent through the works so um nobody nobody works here the sensors automatically transmit
11:11data to our waste operation control center in reading 24 hours a day right oh that's what we call
11:18the telemetry what happens if something breaks down so our works are serviced by a team of mobile
11:26engineers if a piece of kit malfunctions uh trigger will sensor an alarm and an engineer is dispatched
11:33within two hours all right oh in here is where the engineers log books live
11:42they uh keep a record of anything that happens in one of these but um stuff up here this is
11:46the
11:46really exciting part so this is all the live real-time data being uploaded from the plants
11:52yes i can see it's quite extensive as you can see the information coming through can't you yeah
12:00it's funny because like you know all the data's being pumped out you can see it but actually no one's
12:04looking at it you could save a bit of electricity there couldn't you what's that over there you've
12:09got some cafe no that is our dedicated breakout zones you know for teas coffees relaxation um
12:17yeah inviting inviting yeah no it's nice i like it it's just nobody's here to enjoy the tea
12:23oh no no well thank god that would mean something's going wrong all right thank you great yeah great
12:31oh sorry there's a hole there did anyone mention that we've been invited to the town hall in burford
12:37the commander wants us all there it's really exciting actually you know we think it's important
12:42that we hold our hands up when mistakes are made
12:47oh god did you see see our face like you do it like i can't believe it and we can
12:57ask for all
12:57the telemetrys you know they've got to give it to us that's that's hundreds of thousands of
13:01data points and everything that goes on in the works right right just try not to get too excited
13:07what i'm just saying i'm just shutting you calm down okay have you been giving her plenty of
13:18liquids yes been keeping her warm yes did everything you said okay and are there any more symptoms yes
13:28she's been bleeding from the backside doctor i'm calling an ambulance
13:36so look i've got the telemetry for burford and i've deciphered the engineer's handwriting
13:4327th of december engineer's name is michael lazarus
13:50it turns out here that eight minutes past five on the morning of the 27th the alarm got triggered at
13:58the works um the communications had failed but it must have been intermittent because at eight
14:06minutes past six the center got a message to say that both the main inlet pumps had failed
14:14then at 16 minutes past eight another alarm was triggered the storm tank was overflowing
14:23and that's when the dumping start
14:26so the pumps have packed up the storm tanks overflowing you've got three alarms sounding
14:32obviously they dispatched an engineer not for five and a half hours
14:42wet pumps one and two both failed return liquor pump failed balancing tank
14:48fall untreated sewage tank fall effluent chamber flooded
14:54i don't need this
15:01storm tanks filled to the top all the sewage is flushing into the river
15:08reset
15:14return liquor pump reset might fail again
15:19the hull's gonna hold
15:22trying my best there
15:25everything's failing he did what he could to patch things up
15:27and by then it's been dumping sewage into the wind rush for over five hours
15:33yeah and we know we know that there wasn't any heavy rainfall like aylard said because it didn't
15:39even rain on that day
15:40yeah then the oxidation tank failed on the 28th the rotation arms packed up on the 29th
15:49burford was falling apart
15:51couldn't handle all the sewage it was taken in so it was just flashing everything into the river
15:55and i feel that mickey's the kind of person who's in the habit of telling the truth don't you
16:01what about commander a lord
16:13the results are back from the lab
16:15it's quite serious
16:18heather has been infected with e coli the most aggressive strain 0157
16:29we're going to keep her comfortable keep an eye on her and hope that it passes through
16:35it's possible that the virus could attack heather's kidney functions which might have serious
16:40consequences for other organs
16:50this was really about a temporary malfunction to the alarm
16:56we think at least partly caused by the heavy rainfall that day
16:59rather than any actual interruption to the treatment process
17:02so what i'd like to do
17:04sorry can i um can i say a few words
17:07yes of course there was no heavy rain
17:10um in fact um didn't rain at all
17:15if you'll uh bear with me what what i have here is uh the engineer's log books
17:22the engineer is called michael lazarus
17:24and what you can see from mr lazarus's logs is that the alarms
17:29were in fact uh functioning as normal they were triggered as soon as the flooding began
17:36but the thing is mr lazarus was not dispatched to the works for more than five hours
17:42the plant was falling apart it couldn't treat the sewage it was taking in and so it was just pumping
17:48it all out directly into the river
17:54well um thanks so much ash and to you peter it does look as though i've been misinformed
18:02and i intend to get to the bottom of this
18:05and i'll be putting my thumb on whoever so what are you going to do about what these two gentlemen
18:10have said what's going to happen now
18:11i think that we are we're both shocked absolutely shocked to hear that information because
18:18you've said one thing they've actually backed up with evidence something completely the opposite
18:23our river you're just dumping in and just covering everything up
18:28and making money and what's the long-term problems for the wildlife the fish and the birds what's happening with
18:35those
18:35the ecological welfare of our rivers and our waterways is something that we find incredible
18:41absolutely and what are you doing so that's nothing
18:44you're you're polluting our water i wouldn't even let my dog scream in the river now
18:48it is a highest highest priority that we will be fixing this as soon as possible i can assure you
18:55from all of us at thames water we are working night and day
19:00i do i do as well thank you thank you thank you very much thank you
19:08shall we go outside yes i think he just lied to us
19:13just straight up and down to our faces
19:15well no he said he was misinformed princess diane's equerry i mean
19:19what is that by the way
19:20i don't know it helps when people lie
19:24it's how you know they've got something to hide
19:42i mean it's ammonia we need to keep an eye out
19:45that's going to read high right after they've dumped the suit
19:48fuck me it's it's it's it's actually like one of your cases isn't it
19:53not really no it's more real-time monitoring of the river
19:58and the outflow pipes as well
20:01so the question is is burford acting alone
20:07because there's what seven seven seven uh works along the wind rush
20:13so we need to know if burford is an outlier
20:15single failing plant
20:17like a lone assassin just killing everything that lives in the water
20:22or or are they more like burford
20:24well i mean i suppose i could order the
20:26order the telemetry and
20:28get it for all of them
20:35dear e ir team
20:38i would be grateful if you could supply
20:43all the telemetry exchanges between the control centre
21:04i can't find a pulse
21:11is there nothing
21:14that's weird
21:20no i can't feel anything
21:21no
21:23somebody call for help
21:24help no can we get a doctor in here please
21:33what have you done to your finger
21:34oh i don't know
21:37i woke up this morning it was like that
21:39feels a bit weird
21:40well do you think that charlie should take a look at that
21:42i mean she's she's a chemist isn't she
21:43i know she's a chemist don't you
21:45okay so you know that they sent me all these
21:48data flows from the works of whitney
21:50and at church hamburger
21:51yeah
21:52but what i've done i've converted the program that i built
21:55for the fetal alcohol kits
22:01what happened there was that the mothers they were being paid in wine
22:05so most of their children had fetal alcohol syndrome
22:10what i did was that i took i took thousands of photographs of these fas kids
22:17and so by showing the machine hundreds of these faces of these unborn children
22:22we taught it to spot the features of fetal alcohol syndrome in the womb
22:34so when the program sees it in a scan
22:37then it can tell the doctor straight away
22:39and then they can start helping the mother and the kid
22:46now birth does most of his heavy lifting during early morning just before everyone goes to work
22:51and and then again in the evening when they come back home
22:55so you can see the flows of treated effluent hitting the daily peaks and troughs
23:01now that's when the penny dropped
23:03the thing is that is just like the contours on a baby's face
23:11by showing the machine nine years of this flow data
23:15i've taught it to recognize when the the usual flows
23:19they don't they don't show off
23:21when the everyday flows are missing
23:24or they're not treating the sewage
23:27and if they're not treating the sewage there's nowhere for it to go
23:30except
23:31into the river
23:33except into the river
23:54we've decided to transfer heather to the bristol hospital for children
24:00it's one of the best in the country
24:02they'll be able to look after her there
24:05it's getting bigger i think
24:07have you been in the river again?
24:09yeah yeah
24:10did you have any cuts?
24:12yeah yeah
24:13i pricked my finger on a thorn when i was sitting at the camera
24:16before or after you went into the river?
24:19before
24:19right
24:22so if there's a pathogen in the water
24:25you've given it direct entry into your bloodstream
24:30is that bad?
24:31it's bad you muppet
24:33you need antibiotics
24:36you know a lot of sewage has drugs in it
24:38and if they mix with bacteria
24:41then the bacteria becomes antibiotic resistant
24:46which means that the antibiotics might not work on you
24:49so they might have to try different types of medication on you
24:53oh god
24:54hold on
24:59so what are you doing?
25:01i'm just drawing on you
25:04why?
25:04because if it gets bigger then we will know
25:08that looks worse now
25:10so that's where she drew the marker
25:12and that's how much bigger it's got in like two days
25:15bloody hell
25:16and that is just from putting your hand in the river
25:19yep
25:19i'm an idiot
25:20well
25:21we know that
25:22but i mean
25:23if it's doing that to your hand
25:24just think about what it's doing to all the creatures that live in the river
25:27exactly
25:28what was it you wanted to show me?
25:30oh yeah
25:30well you know i got all this data through from north leech
25:33you know
25:34we went to the wheat chief there
25:35oh yeah
25:36that was overpriced for what it was
25:38well
25:38you thought so
25:39but anyway look
25:40they must have sent this by mistake
25:43because i'm pretty sure they haven't read it
25:45why?
25:45why do you say that?
25:46because it says here
25:47that the works at north leech
25:49they haven't treated any sewage
25:50for three and a half months
25:53so either
25:54either the good people of north leech
25:55have been holding it in for three and a half months
25:58or
25:58now i know they did not do that
26:00because i
26:02have the log books
26:03and
26:04north leech is on
26:06michael lazarus's plate
26:10fucking hate my life
26:20site flooded due to pump failure
26:24site flooded for the fifth day running
26:27storm tank high alarm sounding for nearly 48 hours now
26:31storm pump failure alarm sounding for nearly four days
26:35all four fire filters not rotating
26:38no flow coming into the works
26:41power surges have badly affected all equipment on site
26:44serious plant failure
26:49generator not running
26:50running to get the site going
26:54fucks
27:13roadside flooding believes it had been caused by this
27:18oh
27:18fuck off
27:21oh
27:22for fuck's sake
27:30yeah liam
27:31yeah listen mate
27:32i'm at north leech
27:34power's gone mate
27:35power's packed up
27:36generator's gone
27:38mate it's gone
27:39we can't treat sewage without any power
27:41we're either backing up
27:43or we're dumping it straight into the river
27:46oh
27:47and liam mate
27:49there's sewage coming up from the ground
28:06thames's own data shows north leech
28:08hasn't treated any sewage for three and a half months
28:11yeah
28:12so look
28:14there's two works
28:16and they're a few miles of each other
28:18both rotting into the sludge
28:20both dumping illegally
28:21we've got to get this to the environment agency
28:24they've got prosecuting powers
28:25what do you mean?
28:26well they don't have to show their evidence to the police
28:28these are crimes
28:29they can prosecute privately
28:32also they can just
28:34just take times to court
28:35yes
28:37they're the sewage police
28:38wow
28:40can anyone else do that?
28:42post office
28:43the post office
28:43that's unusual
28:46i can see that your swelling's gone down
28:49yeah yeah
28:49the antibiotics are kicking in
28:51thank god
28:53and it's about keeping us
28:55a little bit more local
28:58sorry i'm just going to fold this up actually
29:01we want to strip out
29:04as much unnecessary regulation as possible
29:07so under operator self-monitoring
29:11we're going to be asking the water companies
29:13to monitor their own environmental performance
29:16flagging any breaches to us as a priority
29:20i um
29:21sorry i don't understand
29:23so um
29:23you you want water companies
29:26to monitor their own pollution
29:28yeah it's about shifting the burden of regulation
29:32onto the companies
29:33and asking the water companies
29:35if there's been a pollution
29:37to give us the details
29:39uh
29:40hang on
29:41hang on
29:42just
29:43just to be clear
29:44you want
29:46us
29:47to ask the water companies
29:49to tell us
29:50when they've dumped sewage
29:51it's about
29:53pivoting away
29:54from
29:55away from on-site inspections
29:57to a more
29:58desk-based
29:59approach
30:01yeah
30:01it's it's sort of
30:02streamlining
30:03our process
30:04so you want us to start
30:05visiting sewage works
30:07no no no
30:08no we'll still be doing
30:09on-site inspections
30:10yeah
30:11of course
30:11um
30:12provided that we give the company
30:14two weeks notice
30:14of our visit
30:15yeah but that's a
30:16that is a problem
30:17because
30:17well
30:17sorry
30:18again
30:18yeah
30:19um
30:19but if we give the water companies
30:21two weeks notice
30:22yeah
30:22they'll just clean up
30:23before we get there
30:24yeah
30:25I mean it's it
30:26it is an honour system
30:27so
30:27if the companies say
30:29that there hasn't been
30:30an incident
30:31I don't think we should go
30:32looking for reasons
30:33to challenge that
30:34so
30:34what you're saying is
30:37regulate yourselves
30:38and then just
30:40let us know
30:41if you've committed
30:42any crimes
30:45yeah
30:47thanks so much
30:48okay
30:49see you
30:54to Julia Simpson
30:56Area Director
30:57Environment Agency
30:59dear Julia
30:59I live in Oxfordshire
31:01near the river Windrush
31:03my neighbour
31:04Professor Peter Hammond
31:05and I
31:05have been gathering
31:06evidence of sewage
31:07discharges
31:08into our river
31:09by Thames Water
31:10we'd like to bring
31:11what we've learned
31:12to the attention
31:13of the Environment Agency
31:14dear Julia
31:15we'd like to invite you
31:17to meet some members
31:18of our group
31:19to discuss issues
31:20of sewage pollution
31:21dear Julia
31:22we are going to take
31:23a trip down the river
31:24on foot
31:25and by boat
31:26looking at possible
31:26sources of sewage pollution
31:28would the Environment Agency
31:29be interested
31:30dear Julia
31:31we are still waiting
31:33for a suitable
31:34point of contact
31:39dear Ashley
31:40the Department
31:41for the Environment
31:42will provide you
31:43with a full response
31:44by the 8th of June 2018
31:47she's got an MBE
31:49and a bloody big salmon
31:52why is she taking so long
31:53to get back to us
31:55doesn't you realise
31:56you're doing your job
31:57for her
31:57I don't know
31:58I might put in a complaint
32:29what's she doing
32:29and I'll see you
32:42Yeah, love.
32:43Mr Smith, it's Julia Dimson from the Environment Agency.
32:46I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.
32:49Honestly, waiting for death, right? It is maddening.
32:52Well, we've found each other now.
32:54We wanted to ask about how the agency monitors sewage dumps into the river.
33:01Well, spills, yes.
33:03Well, as you probably know, we manage operator self-monitoring.
33:07What, operator self-monitoring? What's that?
33:10Yes, it's for Thames Water to report any potential breaches.
33:14You mean it's Thames' job to tell you when they've dumped sewage?
33:19To report potential pollution incidents, yes.
33:23What if they don't report them?
33:24We would expect Thames to report 100% of pollution incidents.
33:28So, it's not even your responsibility to inspect the works?
33:35For?
33:37Well, to see if they're working.
33:39No, absolutely.
33:41We inspect the treatment works, yes, of course we do.
33:44How often?
33:45Well, we would inspect perhaps once every few days to perhaps once every six months, depending on the inspection team's
33:53judgment.
33:55We're aware that there's been some discussion locally around water quality on the Windrush.
34:00And in fact, we've just completed a new survey.
34:03So, I was thinking it would be a good idea for me to take up your invitation, come down to
34:08the village hall and to go over some of the results.
34:11So, the good news is that our testing shows that there's no evidence that the Windrush is seriously polluted or
34:20that the quality of the water has declined.
34:22We do know that the river is more brown these days, but our evidence has shown that this brown colour
34:29has got nothing to do with sewage.
34:33Sorry, we've spoken earlier on the telephone.
34:36I wonder if you could confirm something you told me then, that the agency inspects all the works along the
34:43Windrush between every two to three days and every six months.
34:46Yes, that's right.
34:47Professor Peter Hammond, and I'm also part of this Windrush group, a colleague of yours told me that actually you
34:56only inspect once every eight years.
34:59And also, I've just been, I've been running your figures and so you've only done about half of the inspections
35:09that you needed to have been doing.
35:10In fact, you've only been visiting the works once every 16 years.
35:16We also took a look at your water quality tests.
35:20And the thing is, they were all carried out upstream from all the major sewage works.
35:26It's almost as if you've chosen the cleanest part of the river to conduct your tests.
35:32The river is actually devoid of anything in there.
35:36The fish and all the wildfire and everything that reads on from that, from your kingfishers to everything.
35:42You've absolutely ruined this place and you should be bloody well ashamed of yourself.
35:51And the watercress beds, you destroyed the watercress beds as well.
35:56That used to be a source of industry years ago.
35:58Totally gone.
35:59So we will be taking all your feedback into consideration.
36:03I will have to go away and we will listen to your feedback.
36:08I promise you.
36:46You're not disclosing the names of anyone we talked to.
36:49We wondered if you could spare two minutes.
37:00People call me Mickey, first of all.
37:01Thank you very much for coming here.
37:02I know it's not easy, so...
37:03We appreciate you so much, I can't tell you.
37:05I'm not grass, okay?
37:08I did grass on my mate, like in year eight, back in the day, but this is different from grassing,
37:12right?
37:12This is like blowing the whistle.
37:13I told you I'm an ex-copper.
37:14You've told me that as well, you've told me that as well, that's maybe...
37:16This is not grassing is like when you grass on your mates and blowing the whistle, whistle blowing is when
37:22you like grass on your boss.
37:23Right.
37:25We're going to start.
37:26We're going to start.
37:26All right, check this out.
37:29Most water companies get sold every 10 years or so.
37:33JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Kuwait Sovereign Fund, Chinese banks, we've had them all, mate.
37:46So, um, Macquarie bought us in 2006.
37:49That's the, that's the Australian hedge fund.
37:52It's known as the millionaire's factory.
37:54Such are the reputed riches of many of Macquarie's key executives.
37:57The vampire kangaroo.
37:59That's it.
37:59And they've earned that name because they are bloodsuckers.
38:01Leading companies rely on Macquarie for advice, access to capital.
38:05The first thing they did was sell our offices and then rent them back to us.
38:10What?
38:11Wrong-ins.
38:11They make Del Boy look like a fucking amateur.
38:13Then they said that we had to get management clearance to buy pens.
38:19Right in the top to buy a biro.
38:21Not even a parker, not a fancy pen, just a normal pen.
38:24Piss take, all right?
38:25Now, let's say this.
38:26Right.
38:26A pipe's broken.
38:28What you do normally, you take it out, you put a new one in.
38:30They would tell us to stick a collar around it.
38:33It's not going to hold.
38:34What's the collar?
38:35It's just like sticking plaster.
38:37It's not going to hold.
38:37It's a temporary fix.
38:38The pipe's still rotten, okay?
38:40It's going to go again.
38:41It's a box job.
38:42It's like Frankenstein.
38:43Why don't they want to do it properly?
38:45Why don't they want to spend money and seal it properly?
38:48They don't give up monkeys about the works.
38:49You know why?
38:50Because they're going to flip you.
38:51If they don't want to spend any money on it, how are they going to maintain your works?
38:57They don't give a shit.
38:58You know why?
38:59They're like dodgy house flippers.
39:00They're going to go in there.
39:01It's still rotten inside.
39:02And they flip it.
39:03They're out.
39:03That's why I banked with McQuarrie.
39:07McQuarrie, when they flogged us, they walked away with around 2.8 billion quid.
39:12It's scandalous.
39:15So how do you know all this then, Mickey?
39:17I started working for Thames when I was 16.
39:19On my second day, I joined the union.
39:23I get people ringing me up every day.
39:25Mickey, it's all falling apart.
39:27We can't keep it going.
39:29Pete, if you were there working there, you were an engineer, you know, and the pumps ain't working, you're at
39:33capacity.
39:34What's your best option?
39:35Well, the best option, obviously, is just to get rid of the sewage, I suppose.
39:40The only option is to press the button that flushes it all out.
39:46I'm not proud to admit that.
39:48And I feel guilty, you know.
39:50I see people swimming in these rivers and their kids swim in the rivers.
39:55What am I supposed to do?
39:56I know what goes in there.
39:57I'll put it in there.
39:59We're at tipping point here, fellas.
40:04So we have run the brain tests.
40:08Heather's brain has lost the ability to control her vital organs, and unfortunately they are failing.
40:15I'm really very sorry.
40:18But I think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators.
40:38I think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators.
41:06Dear Professor Hammond, I'm a member of Citizens Against Southwest Water.
41:12We formed a year ago to fight the company's sewage dumping in our bit of Devon.
41:16One of our group was recently given these, which we thought you should see.
41:26A girl of eight may have been the first person in Britain to have contracted fatal E. coli poisoning from
41:33raw sewage.
41:34Ten other people, including four children, who all visited the beach on July the 28th,
41:41were also struck down by the same bacterial strain.
41:46Have a brain tied to V. coli.
41:59If you'd like, we could bring her over to you.
42:06Here we go.
42:08All right.
42:09Here we go.
42:10All right.
42:12I'll just leave you together for a little while now, okay?
42:32You're all right.
42:35You're all right.
42:49Okay.
42:51Here we go.
42:52All right.
42:54There we go.
42:56Be careful.
42:57It's okay.
42:58All right.
42:59Here we go.
43:03Here we go.
43:30Oh, sorry.
43:32Sorry.
43:33Sorry.
43:33Sorry.
43:34Sorry.
43:34Sorry.
43:43All right, dear.
43:58So, you know how I taught the machine to look for the anomalies
44:03in Whitney and Church Emperor?
44:05Yeah, right.
44:06Well, have you been free-jazzing your numbers again?
44:09Well, it's actually a lot of hard work, you know.
44:10Oh, no, sorry.
44:11Just looking for the patterns and spotting the deviations.
44:14Yeah, right.
44:15And you know that, you do know that when the machine sees an abnormality,
44:20it can only mean one thing, that it's dumping sewage.
44:23Yes.
44:24Okay, so, in the nine years that I have data for,
44:29these two works alone, Whitney and Church Emperor,
44:32they've dumped sewage a thousand times.
44:38These aren't accidents, Ash.
44:41It's a policy.
44:45This is starting to look like organized crime.
45:00No, this isn't right.
45:02That's shit.
45:05No, this ain't right.
45:06That's pure sewage.
45:09You say you've got insufficient evidence, but we keep giving you the evidence.
45:12All we ever do is give you the evidence.
45:14If you don't know what caused the infection,
45:16then you need to shut down the beach.
45:18That's not going to happen.
45:19I wonder if we should be calling it an outbreak.
45:21So that's the kind of term that could alarm people.
45:23We are conducting an investigation under Section 108 of the Environment Lab.
45:27Close the beach before this happens to somebody else.
45:30With their kids.
45:31With fishing nets.
45:32Sitting amongst turds.
45:35Reuben!
45:38Reuben!
45:40I need another whistleblower.
Comments