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Dirty Business S01E01 [Full Movie] [Full Series]Full EP - Full
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00:12Privateized water is a better deal than nationalized water.
00:17That the water privatization, I believe, will go very successfully indeed, that will go very
00:24successfully indeed, and perhaps therefore we have better wait and see so that we can
00:29quantificate in the light of the fact.
00:51Lewis! Lewis! What did I tell you about that seaweed? Do not throw it!
01:01Are you hungry?
01:05Ice cream! No!
01:07We just got here, you wanna? Yeah, we'll get it on the way back to the chalet, alright?
01:11Yeah, we'll get it back now. It's dead, isn't it?
01:13I did promise you, I will, I promise.
01:24It was way through. Heather, stop!
01:27What?
01:29Heather, I told you to stop, didn't I?
01:33Do you think that's poo?
01:34Of course, it's not poo.
01:39It wasn't poo.
01:41Love, don't come in!
01:43Don't come in like that!
01:45Can I have four? Shall I go?
01:46Go as far as you can!
01:49Wash it off, scrubby!
01:52You what?
01:53Scrubby!
01:53Hey, Heather!
01:54Have I got it?
01:55Down, you think?
01:56No, you are!
01:57Down, isn't that?
01:58Is it up her?
02:00Yeah, I think so.
02:01Get a towel.
02:02Yeah, get a drawer.
02:03Me?
02:04We've got a smelly little mermaid!
02:06It smells, that!
02:08Hi, hey!
02:09Hello!
02:09That's Hickory.
02:10Yeah!
02:11Tell the other one, what about that one?
02:13No.
02:14No?
02:14Oh, look at that!
02:29It was quite remarkable, really, that with most of the fresh water fish burning,
02:35It was just on this stretch, really seriously, that 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 heels, 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.
03:03Yes, sir.
03:04Would Eileen still do that water vole register?
03:08No.
03:08No, that's so.
03:09No, that's right.
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.
03:46It's not sort of, you know, dinner conversation.
03:48Well, you know, you're tired now.
03:48It's not like I'm a Russian spy, am I?
03:51It's not like I'm, you know, not working for Putin, am I?
03:55That makes me wonder.
03:56Now, why would you say that?
03:57Well, 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?
04:11No.
04:12I'm just having the soup and the crusty bread that sounds nice.
04:17No, no, no.
04:18That's right, yes.
04:20There will have been some minor discoloration in one or two sections of the river.
04:27There's been a discharge from the Burford Works.
04:31A discharge?
04:32Discharge of what?
04:34Untreated sewage.
04:35Yeah, 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 can't be right, because it rains all the time.
04:54Well, heavy rain, you said.
04:55I don't remember any heavy rain, do you?
04:57You know, I'm going to write to Thames Water and ask how many times they've put sewage into the river.
05:01Well, they're not going to 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 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. I mean, people are
05:31swimming in there.
05:33Dear 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? All this? When you used to be a detective?
05:48No.
05:49But, you know, poisonous stuff in the river and we're not being warned about it? That'd be a scandal.
06:08It's a tummy bug. 48 hour thing. Plenty of liquids. I'll give you some anti-sickness tablets just to stop
06:15the vomiting.
06:15Okay?
06:19Hey, darling.
06:20Oh, shit. How many was it?
06:21The doctor said you got to take your medicine now.
06:24See?
06:26Close your eyes if you want, ma'am. Yeah, keep them close, then you go.
06:31Well, exactly.
06:33No, they said treated sewage mixed with untreated sewage 240 times.
06:37Yeah.
06:50This is free jazz, is it?
06:53Oh, um, no, it's not free jazz. It's, uh, intemporary jazz. And so they like free jazz.
06:58Right.
06:59And people pay money to listen to them.
07:01She's just come round to piss me off.
07:04No.
07:05I'm gonna show you something.
07:06Look at this.
07:07So, uh, what is this? So 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, just, you know, go through the haste to find it.
07:23You're the Oxford professor of mathematics?
07:26No, computational biology. It's not, um...
07:29Still math.
07:30It's not 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, no, there's rules.
07:41So 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.
07:53You're the one who's gonna do.
07:58That's what I'm gonna do.
08:08You're the one who's gonna go through.
08:14You're the one who's gonna do.
08:16Oh, no.
08:23these 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 stop going to the toilet no no see this is it because the
09:03raw 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 yes yes yes well thanks so much for taking my
09:24call
09:24it's commander a lot here external affairs and sustainability at thames richard lovely to speak
09:31with 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 on the 27th of december there's
09:46no treated effort going back into the river yeah nobody seems to be able to explain why that is
09:51it's taken too long to get to the bottom of this i've had to put some rockets up a few
09:57jacks
09:57frankly turns out the flow meters at burford were on the blink heavy rain uh the sewage flow was normal
10:06but the the sensors weren't generating any data uh safe to assume uh the people of burford did not
10:14stop discharging uh the measurements were temporarily interrupted and we'd like to invite you on uh
10:24a tour of the burford works it's just just strange isn't it that um all of the sensors stopped working
10:31at that one point we can't think of any other explanation frankly but uh you know i won't be there
10:37regretting me but the only will be there and you'll be a very good hand no of course we'd like
10:41to do
10:41more but the challenge is that burford sewers are basically victorian does anyone actually work
10:47here it's an unmanned facility that should be unpeopled really shouldn't it
10:53do 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 fluid
11:03through the works so um nobody nobody works here the sensors automatically transmit data to our
11:12waste operation control center in reading 24 hours a day oh that's what we call the telemetry
11:20and what happens if something breaks down so our works are serviced by a team of mobile engineers
11:27if a piece of kit malfunctions a 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 uh quite extensive isn't it you can see the information coming through can't you
11:59yeah it's funny because like you know all the data's being pumped out you can see it but actually
12:04no one's looking at it you could save a bit of electricity there couldn't you what's that over
12:09there you've got some cafe no that is our dedicated breakout zones you know for teas coffees relaxation
12:16um yeah it's 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
12:48did you see see our face like you do it like i can't believe it how much you asked for
12:57all the
12:57telemetry you know they've got to give it to us that's that's hundreds of thousands of days
13:02points and everything that goes on in the works right right just try not to get too excited
13:07well i'm just saying i'm just saying calm down
13:16okay have you been giving her plenty of liquids yes been keeping her warm yes did everything you
13:23said okay and are there any more symptoms yes she's been bleeding from her backside doctor
13:31i'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
14:05at eight minutes 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 started
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 fall untreated sewage tank
14:49fall effluent chamber flooded
15:13return liquor pump reset might fail again
15:19The tunnel's just going to hold.
15:22Trying my best here.
15:25Everything's failing.
15:26He did what he could to patch things up.
15:28And by then, it's been dumping sewage into the windrush for over five hours.
15:33Yeah, and we know.
15:35We know that there wasn't any heavy rainfall like Aylard said,
15:39because it didn't even rain on that day.
15:41Yeah.
15:41And the oxidation tank failed on the 28th.
15:45The rotation arms packed up on the 29th.
15:49Burford was falling apart.
15:51Couldn't handle all the sewage he was taking in,
15:53so he was just flushing everything into the river.
15:56And I feel that Mickey's the kind of person
15:59who's in the habit of telling the truth, don't you?
16:01Yeah.
16:02What about Commander Aylard?
16:13The results are back from the lab.
16:16It's quite serious.
16:18Heather has been infected with E. coli.
16:22The most aggressive strain.
16:29We're going to keep her comfortable,
16:31keep an eye on her,
16:31and hope that it passes through.
16:35It's possible that the virus could attack Heather's kidney functions,
16:39which might have serious consequences for other organs.
16:51This 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 say a few words, Commander?
17:08Yes, of course.
17:09There was no heavy rain.
17:12In fact, it didn't rain at all.
17:16If you'll bear with me,
17:18what I have here is the engineer's logbooks.
17:22The engineer is called Michael Lazarus,
17:25and what you can see from Mr. Lazarus' logs
17:28is that the alarms were, in fact, functioning as normal.
17:33They were triggered as soon as the flooding began.
17:36The thing is, Mr. Lazarus was not dispatched to the works
17:40for more than five hours.
17:42The plant was falling apart.
17:44It couldn't treat the sewage it was taking in,
17:46and so it was just pumping it all out directly into the river.
17:55Well, thanks so much, Ash, and to you, Peter.
17:59It 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...
18:08So what are you going to do about what these two gentlemen have said?
18:10What's going to happen now?
18:12I think that we are both shocked,
18:15absolutely shocked to hear that information, because we were...
18:18You said one thing.
18:19They've actually backed up with evidence
18:21something completely the opposite.
18:23Our river.
18:25You're just dumping it, and just covering everything up.
18:28And making money.
18:29And what's the long-term problems with the wildlife,
18:33the fish and the birds?
18:34What's happening with those?
18:35The ecological welfare of our rivers and our waterways
18:39is something that we find incredible.
18:42And what are you doing?
18:43Nothing.
18:44You're polluting our water.
18:46I wouldn't even let my dog scream in the river now.
18:48It's disgusting.
18:49It is our highest, highest priority that we will be fixing this as soon as possible.
18:54I can assure you, from all of us at Thames & Water, we are working night and day.
19:00Oh, well, I think we need to talk to you.
19:01I do, I do as well, and...
19:03Oh, thank you, sir.
19:03Thank you for your...
19:05Thank you, thank you very much for the meeting.
19:08Shall we go outside?
19:10Yes.
19:10I think he just lied to us.
19:13Just straight some madame took to our faces.
19:15Oh, no.
19:16He said he was misinformed.
19:18Princess Diana's Equary, I mean...
19:19What is that, by the way?
19:21I don't know.
19:23It helps when people lie.
19:25It'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 sewage.
19:49Fuck, I mean, it's actually like one of your cases, isn't it?
19:53Not really, no.
19:55It's more real-time monitoring of the river.
19:58And the outflow pipes as well.
20:02So the question is, is Burford acting alone?
20:07Because there's, what, seven works along the Windrush.
20:13So we need to know if Burford is an outlier, a single failing plant.
20:17Like a lone assassin, just killing everything that lives in the water.
20:22Or are they more like Burford?
20:24Well, I mean, I suppose I could order the telemetry and get it for all of them.
20:36Dear EIR team, I would be grateful if you could supply all the telemetry exchanges
20:45between the control centre and the works on North Beach.
20:50Church, Hambro, Whitney, and Arnold.
20:54And also see me, Professor Peter Hammond.
21:05I can't find a pulse.
21:11Is there nothing?
21:20No, I can't feel anything.
21:22No.
21:23Somebody call for help?
21:24Help, no.
21:25Can 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.
21:39It feels a bit weird.
21:40Well, do you think that Charlie should take a look at that?
21:42I mean, she is a chemist, isn't she?
21:44I know she's a chemist, Oliver.
21:45Okay, so you know that they sent me all these data flows from the works of Whitney
21:50and at Church Hambro.
21:51Yeah.
21:52But what I've done, I've converted the programme that I built for the fetal alcohol kits.
22:02What happened there was that the mothers, they were being paid in wine, so most of their children
22:07had fetal alcohol syndrome.
22:10What I did was that I took, I took thousands of photographs of these FAS kits.
22:17And so by showing the machine, hundreds of these faces of these unborn children, we taught
22:23it to spot the features of fetal alcohol syndrome in the womb.
22:34So when the programme sees it's in a scan, then it can tell the doctor straight away and
22:40then they can stop helping the mother and the kid.
22:46Now, Burford does most of his heavy lifting during early morning, just before everyone
22:50goes to work, 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, I've taught it to recognise when the
23:17usual flows, they don't, they don't show off.
23:22When the everyday flows are missing, well, they're not treating the sewage.
23:27And if they're not treating the sewage, there's nowhere for it to go?
23:31Except?
23:32Into the river?
23:34Except into the river.
23:55We'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, I, uh, I pricked my finger and thawed when I was sitting at the camera.
24:17Before or after you went to the river?
24:19Before.
24:20Right.
24:22So if there's a pathogen in the water, you'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, and if they mix with bacteria, then the bacteria
24:43becomes antibiotic resistant, which 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.
24:55Hold 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.
25:11So, that's where she drew the marker, and that's how much bigger it's got in, like, two days.
25:16Bloody hell.
25:16And that is just from putting your hand in the river.
25:19Yeah, I'm an idiot.
25:21We know that, but, I mean, if it's doing that to your hand, just think about what it's doing
25:26to all the creatures that live in the river.
25:27Exactly.
25:28What was it you wanted to show me?
25:30Oh, yeah, well, you know, I got all this data through from North Leach.
25:34You know, we went to the wheat chief there.
25:36Oh, yeah.
25:36That was overpriced for what it was.
25:38Well, you thought so, but anyway, look, they must have sent this by mistake, because I'm
25:44pretty sure they haven't read it.
25:45Why?
25:45Why do you say that?
25:46Because it says here that the works at North Leach, they haven't treated any sewage for
25:51three and a half months.
25:53So, either the good people of North Leach have been holding it in for three and a half months,
25:58now, I know they did not do that, because I have the love books, and North Leach is on
26:06and Michael Lazarus's people.
26:10Fucking hate my life.
26:16Fuck.
26:20Sight flooding is due to come failure.
26:25Sight flooding 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 biofilters not rotating.
26:38No flow coming into the works.
26:41Power surges have badly affected all equipment on site.
26:45Serious plant failure.
26:49Generator not running.
26:51Running to get the site going.
26:54Oh, fuck's sake.
26:55What's going on?
27:09Oh, fuck's sake.
27:20Oh, fuck's sake.
27:30Yeah, Liam.
27:32Yeah, listen, mate.
27:33I'm at North Leach.
27:35Power's gone, mate.
27:36Power's packed up.
27:37Generator's gone.
27:38Mate, it's gone.
27:39We can't treat sewage without any power.
27:42We're either backing up, or we're dumping it straight into the river.
27:47And Liam, mate.
27:50There's sewage coming up from the ground.
28:06Thames's own data shows North Leach hasn't treated any sewage for three and a half months.
28:11Yeah.
28:12So, look, there's two works, and they're a few miles of each other, both rotting into
28:19the sludge, both dumping illegally.
28:21We've got to get this to the Environment Agency.
28:24They've got prosecuting powers.
28:26What do you mean?
28:26Well, they don't have to show their evidence to the police.
28:28These are crimes.
28:30They can prosecute privately.
28:32What, so they can just take temps to court?
28:36Yes.
28:37They're the sewage police.
28:39Wow.
28:40Can anyone else do that?
28:42Post office.
28:43The post office.
28:44That's unusual.
28:46I can see that your swelling's gone down.
28:49Yeah, yeah, the antibiotics are kicking in.
28:52Very good.
28:52And it's about keeping us a little bit more local.
28:58Sorry, I'm just going to fold this up, actually.
29:02We want to strip out as much unnecessary regulation as possible.
29:07So, under operator self-monitoring, we're going to be asking the water companies to monitor
29:14their own environmental performance, flagging any breaches to us as a priority.
29:20I, um, sorry, I don't understand.
29:23So, um, you want water companies to monitor their own pollution?
29:28Yeah, it's about shifting the burden of regulation onto the companies and asking the water companies
29:35if there's been a pollution to give us the details.
29:39Uh, hang on, hang on.
29:43Just, just to be clear, you want us to ask the water companies to tell us when they've
29:51dumped sewage?
29:52It's about pivoting away from, away from on-site inspections to a more desk-based approach.
30:01Yeah, it's, it's sort of streamlining our process.
30:04So you want us to start visiting sewage works?
30:07No, no, no, no, no, we'll still be doing on-site inspections, yeah, of course, um, provided
30:13that we give the company two weeks' notice of our visit.
30:15Yeah, but that's a, that is a problem, because, well, sorry, again.
30:18Yeah.
30:19Um, but if we give the water companies two weeks' notice, they'll just clean up before
30:24we get there.
30:25I mean, it's, it, it is an honour system, so, if the companies say that there hasn't been
30:30an incident, I, I don't think we should go looking for reasons to challenge that.
30:34So, what you're saying is, regulate yourselves, and then just let us know if you've committed
30:42any crimes?
30:45Yeah.
30:47Thanks so much.
30:49Okay, see you.
30:55To Julia Simpson, Area Director, Environment Agency.
30:59Dear Julia, I live in Oxfordshire, near the River Windrush.
31:03My neighbour, Professor Peter Hammond, and I have been gathering evidence of sewage discharges
31:08into our river by Thames Water.
31:11We'd like to bring what we've learned to the attention of the Environment Agency.
31:14Dear Julia, we'd like to invite you to meet some members of our group to discuss issues
31:20of sewage pollution.
31:21Dear Julia, we are going to take a trip down the river on foot and by boat, looking at possible
31:26sources of sewage pollution.
31:28Would the Environment Agency be interested?
31:30Dear Julia, we are still waiting for a suitable point of contact.
31:39Dear Ashley, the Department for the Environment will provide you with a full response by the
31:448th of June, 2018.
31:47She's got an MBE.
31:49And a bloody big salmon.
31:52Why is she taking so long to get back to us?
31:55Doesn't she realise you're doing your job for her?
31:57I don't know.
31:58I might put in a complaint.
32:02Okay.
32:42Yeah, hello.
32:43Mr Smith, it's Julia Dimson for the Environment Agency.
32:46I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.
32:49Honestly, waiting for Defra, 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.
33:01Spills, 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.
33:29So, it's not even your responsibility to inspect the works?
33:35For?
33:37Well, to see if they're working.
33:40Well, no, absolutely.
33:41We inspect the treatment works.
33:43Yes, of course we do.
33:44How often?
33:45Well, we would inspect perhaps once every few days,
33:49up to perhaps once every six months,
33:51depending on the inspection team's judgment.
33:55Ash, we're aware that there's been some discussion locally
33:58around 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,
34:07come down to the village hall,
34:09and to go over some of the results.
34:12So, the good news is that our testing shows that there's no evidence
34:18that the Windrush is seriously polluted,
34:20or that the quality of the water has declined.
34:23We do know that the river is more brown these days,
34:26but 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,
34:38that the agency inspects all the works along the Windrush
34:43between every two to three days and every six months.
34:46Yes, that's right.
34:48Professor Peter Hammond, and I'm also part of this Windrush group,
34:52a colleague of yours told me that actually
34:55you only inspect once every eight years.
34:59And also, I've just been...
35:00Listen, listen.
35:01I've been running your figures,
35:04and 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
35:13once, well, every 16 years.
35:16We also took a look at your water quality tests.
35:20And the thing is,
35:21they were all carried out upstream
35:24from all the major sewage works.
35:26It's almost as if you've chosen
35:27the cleanest part of the river
35:29to conduct your tests.
35:32The river is actually devoid of anything in there.
35:36The fish and all the wildfire
35:38and everything that reads on from that,
35:40from your kingfishers to everything.
35:42You've absolutely ruined this place,
35:44and you should be bloody well ashamed of yourself.
35:51And the watercrisp beds.
35:53You destroyed the watercrisp beds as well.
35:56That used to be a source of industry years ago.
35:59Totally gone.
35:59So we will be taking all your feedback into consideration.
36:03I will have to go away,
36:05and we will listen to your feedback.
36:08I promise you.
36:35Is it Mr. Lazarus?
36:36My name's Ash Smith.
36:38This is my colleague, Professor Peter Hammond.
36:40We're doing some research on Thames water.
36:42And, uh,
36:44listen, it's all off the record.
36:46We're not disclosing the names of anyone we talk to.
36:49We wondered if you could spare ten 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 tell you.
37:06I'm not grass, okay?
37:08So, I did grass on my mate, like, in year eight,
37:10back in the day, but this is different from grassing, right?
37:12This is like blowing the whistle.
37:13I told you I'm an ex-copper.
37:14Yeah, you told me that as well.
37:16That's maybe...
37:16This is not good.
37:17Grassing is like when you grass on your mates,
37:19and blowing the whistle.
37:21Whistle blowing is when you, like, grass on your boss.
37:23Right.
37:25We're gonna start.
37:26Um, right.
37:27Check this out.
37:29Most water companies get sold every ten years or so.
37:33JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley,
37:35Kuwait Sovereign Fund,
37:38Chinese banks,
37:39we'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.
38:02Leading companies rely on Macquarie for advice,
38:04access to capital.
38:05But the first thing they did was sell our offices,
38:08and then rent them back to us.
38:10What?
38:11Wrong-ins.
38:11They make Del Boy look like a fucking amateur.
38:14Then they said that we had to get management clearance to buy pens.
38:18Okay.
38:19Right to the top to buy a biro.
38:21Not even a parka, not a fancy pen, just a normal pen.
38:24Piss take, all right?
38:25Now, let's say this.
38:26Right.
38:27A pipe's broken.
38:28What'd you do?
38:28Normally, you take it out, you put a new one in.
38:30They would tell us to stick a collar around it.
38:34It's not gonna hold.
38:34What's the collar?
38:35It's just like sticking plaster.
38:37It's not gonna hold.
38:37It's a temporary fix.
38:38The pipe's still rotten.
38:40Okay?
38:40It's gonna 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.
38:50You know why?
38:50Because they're gonna flip you.
38:51If they don't want to spend any money on it,
38:55how 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 gonna go in there.
39:01It's still rotten inside.
39:02And they flip it.
39:03They're out.
39:03That's why I banked for McQuarrie.
39:07McQuarrie, when they flogged us,
39:08they 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,
39:30you were an engineer, you know,
39:32and the pumps ain't working, you're at capacity,
39:34what's your best option?
39:35Well, the best option, obviously,
39:37is just to get rid of the sewage, I suppose.
39:40The only option is to press the button
39:44that 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,
39:54and 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.
40:05So, we have run the brain tests.
40:08Heather's brain has lost the ability
40:09to control her vital organs,
40:11and unfortunately, they are failing.
40:15I'm really very sorry.
40:19But I think it's time we consider
40:20turning off her ventilators.
41:06Dear Professor Hammond,
41:08I'm a member of Citizens Against Southwest Water.
41:12We formed a year ago
41:13to fight the company's sewage dumping
41:15in our bit of Devon.
41:16One of our group was recently given these,
41:19which we thought you should see.
41:26A girl of eight may have been
41:28the first person in Britain
41:30to have contracted fatal E. coli poisoning
41:33from raw sewage.
41:35Ten other people,
41:36including four children,
41:38who all visited the beach
41:40on July the 28th,
41:41were also struck down
41:43by the same bacterial strain.
41:47Have a brain tied to V. coli.
41:59If you'd like,
42:00we could bring her over to you.
42:12I'll just leave you together
42:13for a little while now, okay?
42:20Come on, come on, come on.
42:32You're all right.
42:35You're all right.
42:48I'm sorry.
42:50Okay, so here we go.
42:52All right.
42:54There we go.
42:56Be careful.
42:57It's okay.
42:58All right.
42:59Come on.
43:00Come on.
43:32I'm sorry.
43:33Sorry about that.
43:33Thank you for your...
43:44All right, dear.
43:58So, you know how I taught the machine to look for the anomalies in Whitney and Churchamborough?
44:05Yeah, right. Well, have you been free-jazzin' 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 a 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 Churchamborough,
44:32they've dumped sewage a thousand times.
44:38These aren't accidents, Ash.
44:41It's a policy.
44:46This is starting to look like organized crime.
45:01This is starting to look like organized crime.
45:14If you don't know what caused the infection, then you need to shut down the beach.
45:18That's not gonna happen.
45:19I wonder if we should be calling it an outbreak.
45:21I feel like the kind of term that could alarm people.
45:23We are conducting an investigation under section 108 of the Environment Line.
45:27Close the beach before this happens to somebody else.
45:30With their kids, with fishing nets, sitting amongst turds.
45:35Reuben!
45:38Reuben!
45:39Reuben!
45:40Reuben!
45:41Reuben!
45:43Reuben!
45:45Reuben!
45:45Reuben!
45:47Reuben!
45:47Reuben!
45:48Reuben!
45:48Reuben!
45:48Reuben!
45:49Reuben!
45:49Reuben!
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