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00:00.
00:12Privatised water is a better deal than nationalised water.
00:17That the water privatisation I believe will go very successfully indeed, that will go
00:23very successfully indeed, and perhaps therefore we have better wait and see so that we can
00:29pontificate in the light of the fact.
00:34.
00:34.
00:35.
00:35.
00:35.
00:35.
00:35.
00:35.
00:36.
00:44.
00:44.
00:44.
00:45.
00:46.
00:52.
00:54.
00:54.
00:54What did I tell you about that seaweed? Do not throw it!
01:03You hungry?
01:07Ice cream!
01:08No, we just got here, you wouldn't.
01:10Yeah, we'll get it on the way back to the chalet, all right?
01:13Yeah, we'll get it back. It's dead, isn't it?
01:15I do promise you, I will. I promise.
01:27Girls, wait, please. Heather, stop!
01:30What?
01:31Bloody hell.
01:33Heather, I told you to stop, didn't I?
01:36Think that's poo?
01:37Of course it's not poo.
01:42Sneak.
01:43It wasn't poo.
01:44It's nothing, isn't it?
01:46Don't come in.
01:47Right.
01:47Don't come in like that.
01:49How far shall I go?
01:50Go as far as you can.
01:52All right, all right, all right.
01:54I think we're doing that.
01:55Wash it off.
01:56Scrub it.
01:56You what?
01:57Scrub it.
01:58All right.
01:58Here, Heather.
01:59Have I got it?
02:00Don't you think?
02:02Is it off her?
02:03You what?
02:04Is it off her?
02:05Yeah, I think so.
02:06You're the donor.
02:06Get a towel.
02:07Here, get a dry.
02:08Me.
02:09There you go.
02:10We've got a smelly little mermaid.
02:11Still smells that.
02:14Is that ticklish?
02:15Yeah.
02:16Tell the other one about that one.
02:19No.
02:19No?
02:20Oh, look at that.
02:25It was all over there.
02:36No.
02:36It was quite remarkable, really, that with most of the fresh water fish.
02:41And England was just on the stretch, most of it, those including the chub, that.
02:46The chub came later, of course.
02:49They're gone.
02:50What, the chub?
02:51Well, the chub, the barbell, the eels, everything.
02:55Well, yes, I mean, the...
02:58The water's brown.
03:01You don't really think about the colour
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 bowl register?
03:16No.
03:17That's, uh, no, they're gone as well.
03:22I mean, I remember when I first came here
03:26that it was crystalline, isn't it?
03:50You never talk about your work.
03:52Well, I'd have to, you know, it's part of the training.
03:56It's not sort of, you know, dinner conversation.
03:58I'm tired now.
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.
04:06Why would you say that?
04:07That's a bit...
04:08You investigated Ben Coppers, wasn't it?
04:11Yeah, 25 years.
04:12Well, come on, but 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.
04:22Shall we get some mixed greens?
04:23No.
04:24I'm just having the soup and the crusty bread.
04:30That's right, yes.
04:32There will have been some minor discoloration
04:35in one or two sections of the river.
04:39There's been a discharge from the Burford Works.
04:43A discharge?
04:44Discharge of what?
04:46Untreated sewage.
04:47Yeah, legally they're allowed to spill
04:50after heavy rainfall.
04:53So they can just do that, can't they?
04:56That's what you said.
04:57They're allowed to dump untreated sewage
05:01into the river right after heavy rain.
05:04But that can't be right,
05:05because it rains all the time.
05:07Well, heavy rain, he said.
05:08I don't remember any heavy rain, do you?
05:10I'm going to write to Thames Water
05:13and ask how many times they've put sewage
05:15into the river.
05:16Well, they're not going to tell you that.
05:17Oh, yeah, yeah, they've got to.
05:18What's the law?
05:20Dear Mr Smith,
05:21no untreated sewage has been discharged
05:24into the river windrush
05:25for 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
05:37untreated sewage into the river?
05:41I don't see how putting any kind of pathogens
05:44into the river could possibly be allowed.
05:46I mean, people are swimming in there.
05:47Dear Mr Smith,
05:49in 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'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.
06:33Okay?
06:37Hey there.
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
06:53mixed with untreated sewage
06:54240 times.
06:5540 times.
06:56Yeah.
07:09This is free jazz, is it?
07:12Oh, um, no, it's not free jazz.
07:14It's, uh, contemporary jazz.
07:16It's 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.
07:25I'm going to show you something.
07:26Look at this.
07:28So, uh, what is this?
07:29Uh, this is, uh,
07:30is 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.
07:44You're the Oxford professor of mathematics.
07:47No, computational biology.
07:49It's not, um...
07:50Still math.
07:51It's nice machine learning, actually.
07:53So, what's that like, A.I.?
07:55I know you're going to take the piss,
07:56but it's a bit like free jazz.
07:58Oh!
08:00Depressing and pointless.
08:01Uh, no.
08:02No, there's rules.
08:04So, there's a kind of order beneath the chaos.
08:08Um, and you've got to listen really hard, uh, for the patents.
08:11Why don't you just email me these, and I'll, I'll take a look.
08:25Oh, no.
08:27Oh, no.
08:47These, what you've given me, they're, they're flow numbers.
08:50They track the sewage coming into the works,
08:53and 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,
09:08the flow of treated effluent coming out of the works just stops.
09:13It just stops completely.
09:15Right, 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,
09:24the people of Burford stop going to the toilet?
09:27No, no, see, this is it.
09:28Because the raw sewage is still going into the works,
09:33but there's nothing coming out.
09:38Now, that's, that's just not right.
09:42So, what do we do?
09:43I don't know.
09:44We go back to them and say, give us a bit more detail.
09:46Is that Ashley and Peter?
09:48Yes, 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.
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, on the 27th of December,
10:14there'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 jacksies, 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 of Burford did not stop discharging.
10:45Uh, the measurements were, uh, temporarily interrupted.
10:50It's all that 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
11:02one 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
11:15basically Victorian.
11:17Does anyone actually work here?
11:19It's an unmanned facility.
11:21Yeah, it 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
11:35fluid and 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
11:4724 hours a day.
11:49Right.
11:49Oh, that's what we call the telemetry.
11:53And what happens if something breaks down?
11:56Oh, so our works are serviced by a team of mobile engineers.
12:01If a piece of kit malfunctions, a trigger will censor an alarm, and an engineer is dispatched
12:06within two hours.
12:08Right.
12:09Oh.
12:10Oh, in here is where the engineer's logbooks live.
12:15They, 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.
12:38You can see it, but actually no-one's looking at it.
12:40You could save a bit of electricity there, couldn't you?
12:42Um, what's that over there?
12:44You've got, um, sort of, cafe?
12:46No, that is our dedicated breakout zones.
12:49You know, for teas, coffees, relaxation, um, yeah, any time.
12:54It's inviting, inviting, isn't it?
12:56Yeah, no, it's nice.
12:56I like it.
12:57It's just nobody's here to enjoy the tea, aren't you?
12:59Oh, no, no.
13:00Well, thank God that would mean something's going wrong.
13:04All right, thank you.
13:06Great.
13:07Yeah, great.
13:08Oh, sorry.
13:09There's a hole there.
13:11Did anyone mention that we'd been invited to the town hall in Burford?
13:15The 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
13:20when mistakes are made.
13:25God, did you see her face?
13:29Like, you do it like...
13:32I can't believe it.
13:34And we can ask for all the telemetry,
13:36and, you know, they've got to give it to us.
13:37That's, that's hundreds of thousands of data points,
13:41and everything that goes on in the works...
13:43Right, right, just try not to get too excited.
13:45Well, I'm just saying...
13:48I'm just saying, calm down.
13:54OK, have you been giving her plenty of liquids?
13:58Yes.
13:59Yeah, been keeping her warm?
14:00Yes.
14:01Did everything you said.
14:02OK, and are there any more symptoms?
14:05I've seen...
14:07She's been bleeding from her backside, Doctor.
14:10I'm calling an ambulance.
14:16So, look, I've got the telemetry for Burford,
14:21and 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,
14:35on the morning of the 27th,
14:37the alarm got triggered at the works,
14:40and the communications had failed.
14:43But it must have been intermittent,
14:46cos at eight minutes past six,
14:48the centre got a message to say
14:50that both the main inlet pumps had failed.
14:55Then, at 16 minutes past eights,
14:59another alarm was triggered.
15:01The storm tank was overflowing.
15:05And that's when the dumping started.
15:09So the pumps have packed up,
15:11the storm tank's overflowing,
15:13you've got three alarms sounding.
15:15Obviously, they've dispatched an engineer.
15:19Not for five and a half hours.
15:26Wet pumps one and two, both failed.
15:29Returned liquor pump, failed.
15:30Balancing tank, full.
15:32Untreated sewage tank, full.
15:33Effluent chamber, flooded.
15:37Don't need this shit.
15:45Storm tanks filled to the top.
15:47All the sewage is flushing into the river.
15:52Set.
15:59Return liquor pump, reset.
16:01Might fail again.
16:04The handle's just gonna hold.
16:07Trying my best here.
16:10Everything's failing.
16:11He did what he could to patch things up.
16:13But by then,
16:15it's been dumping sewage into the wind rush
16:17for over five hours.
16:19Yeah, and we know.
16:20We know that there wasn't any heavy rainfall,
16:23like Aylard said,
16:24because there didn't even rain on 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 he was taking in,
16:39so he was just flashing everything into the river.
16:42And I feel that Mickey's the kind of person
16:45who's in the habit of telling the truth, don't you?
16:47What 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,
17:19keep an eye on her,
17:20and hope that it passes through.
17:21Can you sleep?
17:22No.
17:24It's possible that the virus
17:26could attack Heather's kidney functions,
17:28which might have serious consequences for other organs.
17:40This was really about a temporary malfunction
17:44to the alarm,
17:46we think at least partly caused by the heavy rainfall that day,
17:49rather than any actual interruption to the treatment process.
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,
18:04it didn't rain at all.
18:06If you'll bear with me,
18:09what I have here is the engineer's logbooks.
18:13The engineer is called Michael Lazarus.
18:16And what you can see from Mr. Lazarus' logs
18:19is that the alarms were, in fact, functioning as normal.
18:25They were triggered as soon as the flooding began.
18:28And the thing is,
18:28Mr. Lazarus was not dispatched to the works
18:31for more than five hours.
18:34The plant was falling apart.
18:36It couldn't treat the sewage it was taking in,
18:38and so it was just pumping it all out directly into the 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,
19:08absolutely shocked,
19:09to hear that information,
19:11because we were...
19:12You've said one thing.
19:13They've actually backed up with evidence
19:15something completely the opposite.
19:17Our river.
19:18Yeah.
19:19You're just dumping it
19:20and just covering everything up.
19:23And making money.
19:24And what's the long-term problems with the wildlife,
19:27the 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.
19:39You're polluting our water.
19:41I wouldn't even let my dog scream in the river now.
19:44It's disgusting.
19:45It is our highest, highest priority
19:47that we will be fixing this as soon as possible.
19:50I can assure you,
19:51from all of us at Thameswater,
19:53we are working night and day.
19:55Well, I think we need to have a tea, please.
19:57I do. I do as well.
19:58Thank you, sir.
19:59Thank you for your...
20:01Thank you very much for the 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.
20:12No, no.
20:12He said he was misinformed.
20:15Princess Diane's Equiry.
20:16I mean...
20:16What is that, by the way?
20:17Be quick.
20:19That's helped, no?
20:19It helps when people lie.
20:22It's how you know they've got something to hide.
20:40I mean, it's ammonia we need to keep an eye out.
20:43So that's going to read high right after they've dumped the sewage?
20:47Fuck me.
20:48It is actually like one of your cases, isn't it?
20:52Not really, no.
20:53It's more real-time monitoring of the river.
20:57And the outflow pipes and the outflow pipes as well.
21:00So the question is, is Burford acting alone?
21:06Because there's what, seven?
21:09Seven.
21:09Seven works along the Windrush.
21:12So we need to know if Burford is an outlier, you know, single failing plant.
21:17Like a lone assassin, just killing everything that lives in the water.
21:22Or are they more like Burford?
21:24Well, I mean, I suppose I could order the, order the telemetry and get it for all of them.
21:30You know, dear EIR team, I would be grateful if you could supply all the telemetry exchanges
21:46between the Control Centre and the works at North Beach Church,
21:53Hambrough, Whitney and Orland,
21:56Norse Cerny, Professor Peter Hammond.
22:07I can't find a pulse.
22:13Is there nothing?
22:16I don't know.
22:16I don't know.
22:16That's weird.
22:23No, I can't feel anything, no.
22:26Somebody call for help? Get 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 a chemist, isn't she?
22:48I know, she's a chemist.
22:49I live with her.
22:50OK, so you know that they sent me all these data flows from the works at Whitney and at
22:55Church Hamburger.
22:56Yeah.
22:56But what I've done, I've converted the program that I built for the fetal alcohol kits.
23:07What happened there was that the mothers, they were being paid in wine, so most of their children had fetal
23:13alcohol syndrome.
23:16What I did was that I took thousands of photographs of these FAS kits.
23:23And so by showing the machine hundreds of these faces of these unborn children, we taught it to spot the
23:30features of fetal alcohol syndrome in the womb.
23:41So when the program sees it's in a scan, then it can tell the doctor straight away and then they
23:47can start helping the mother and the kid.
23:53Now, Burford does most of its heavy lifting during early morning, just 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 hitting 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, I've taught it to recognise when the usual flows, they
24:28don't show up.
24:31When the everyday flows are missing, well, they're not treating the sewage.
24:36And if they're not treating the sewage, there's nowhere for it to go?
24:40Except?
24:41Into 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.
25:22Did you have any cuts?
25:24Yeah, yeah.
25:25I pricked my finger on a thorn when I was setting up the camera.
25:28Before or after you went into the river?
25:30Before.
25:32Right.
25:34So if there's a pathogen in the water, you've given it direct entry into your bloodstream.
25:42Is that bad?
25:44It's bad, you muppet.
25:46You need antibiotics.
25:49You know, a lot of sewage has drugs in it.
25:52And if they mix with bacteria, then 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, doesn't it?
26:25So that's where she drew the marker, and that's how much bigger it's got in like two days.
26:30Bloody hell. And that is just from putting your hand in the river.
26:34Yep. I'm an idiot.
26:36We know that.
26:37But, I mean, if it's doing that to your hand,
26:40just think about what it's doing to all the creatures that live in the river.
26:43Exactly.
26:43What was it you wanted to show me?
26:45Oh, yeah.
26:46Well, you know, I got all this data through from North Leech.
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.
26:55But anyway, look, they 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 Leech,
27:05they haven't treated any sewage for three and a half months.
27:09So either the good people of North Leech,
27:12they've 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 Leech is on Michael Lazarus' beat.
27:27I fucking hate my life.
27:34Fuck.
27:38Sight flooded due to pump 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.
28:13Oh, fuck's sake.
28:15Of course.
28:16Yeah.
28:17No.
28:17No.
28:25The dust has completely fallen.
28:28Sight is still heavily flooded.
28:30I think floods were out of storm land.
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
28:57Power's packed up, generator'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
29:09Oh, and Liam, mate
29:12There's sewage coming up from the ground
29:29Thames's own data shows North Leach
29:32Hasn't treated any sewage for three and a half months
29:34Yeah
29:35So, look
29:38There's two works
29:39When they're a few miles of each other
29:42Both rotting into the sludge
29:44Both dumping illegally
29:45We've got to get this to the Environment Agency
29:48They've got prosecuting powers
29:49What 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...
29:58Just take temps to court?
30:00Yes
30:01They're the sewage police
30:03Wow
30:05Can anyone else do that?
30:07Post office
30:08The post office, that's unusual
30:11I can see the TA, 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
30:33So, under operator self-monitoring
30:37We're going to be asking the water companies
30:39To monitor their own environmental performance
30:43Flagging any breaches to us as a priority
30:47I, erm, sorry, I don't understand
30:50So, erm, you want water companies to monitor their own pollution?
30:55Yeah, 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
31:12Yeah, you want us to ask the water companies to tell us when they've dumped sewage
31:20It's about pivoting away from, away from on-site inspections to a more desk-based approach
31:29Yep, it's sort of streamlining our process
31:33So, you want us to stop visiting sewage works?
31:37No, no, no, no
31:37We'll still be doing on-site inspections, yeah
31:40Of course
31:42Provided that we give the company two weeks' notice of our visit
31:45Yeah, but that's a problem
31:46That is a problem, because
31:47Well, sorry
31:47Again
31:48Yeah
31:48Erm, but if we give the water companies two weeks' notice
31:52Yeah
31:52They'll just clean up before we get there
31:54Yeah
31:55I mean, it's, it, it is an honour system
31:57So, I, if the companies say that there hasn't been an incident
32:01I, I don't think we should go looking for reasons to challenge that
32:04So, what you're saying is
32:08Regulate yourselves
32:09And then just let us know if you've committed any crimes
32:16Yeah
32:19Thanks so much
32:20Okay, see you
32:26To Julia Simpson, Area Director, Environment Agency
32:30Dear Julia
32:31I live in Oxfordshire
32:33Near 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
32:48We'd like to invite you to meet some members of our group
32:51To discuss issues of sewage pollution
32:54Dear Julia
32:55We are going to take a trip down the river on foot and by boat
32:59Looking at possible sources of sewage pollution
33:01Would the Environment Agency be interested
33:04Dear Julia
33:04We are still waiting for a suitable point of contact
33:13Dear Ashley
33:14The 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
33:26Why 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
33:36I might put in a complaint
34:02I might put in a complaint
34:19Hello
34:19Mr Smith
34:20It's Julia Simpson from the Environment Agency
34:23I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you
34:26Honestly, waiting for death right?
34:28It is maddening
34:29Well, we've found each other now
34:31We wanted to ask about how the agency monitors sewage dumps into the river
34:39Well, spills, yes
34:41Well, as you probably know, we manage operator self-monitoring
34:46Operator self-monitoring? What's that?
34:48Yes, it's for Thames Water to report any potential breaches
34:52You mean it's Thames' job to tell you when they've dumped sewage?
34:57To report potential pollution incidents, yes
35:01What if they don't report them?
35:03We would expect Thames to report 100% of pollution incidents
35:08So, it's not even your responsibility to inspect the works?
35:15For?
35:16Well, to see if they're working
35:19Well, no, absolutely
35:21We inspect the treatment works, yes, of course we do
35:24How often?
35:25Well, we would inspect
35:27Perhaps once every few days
35:29Up to perhaps once every six months
35:31Depending on the inspection team's judgment
35:35Ash, we're aware that there's been some discussion locally
35:38Around water quality on the Windrush
35:41And in fact, we've just completed a new survey
35:43So I was thinking it would be a good idea for me to take up your invitation
35:48Come down to the village hall
35:50And to go over some of the results
35:53So, the good news is that our testing shows that
35:58There's no evidence that the Windrush is seriously polluted
36:02Or that the quality of the water has declined
36:04We do know that the river is more brown these days
36:08But our evidence has shown that
36:10This brown colour has got nothing to do with sewage
36:16Sorry
36:16We've spoken earlier on the telephone
36:19I wonder if you could confirm something you told me then
36:21That the agency inspects all the works along the Windrush
36:26Between every two to three days and every six months
36:29Yes, that's right
36:31Professor Peter Hammond
36:32And I'm also part of this Windrush group
36:35A colleague of yours told me that actually
36:38You only inspect once every eight years
36:42And also, I've just been
36:44Listen, listen
36:44I've been running your figures
36:48And so you've only done about half of the inspections
36:53That you needed to have been doing
36:54In fact, you've only been visiting the works
36:57Once every 16 years
37:00We also took a look at your water quality tests
37:05And the thing is
37:06They were all carried out
37:08Upstream from all the major sewage works
37:11It's almost as if you've chosen
37:12The cleanest part of the river
37:14To conduct your tests
37:17The river is actually devoid of anything in there
37:21The fish and all the wildfire and everything that reads on from that
37:26From your kingfishers to everything
37:28You've absolutely ruined this place
37:30And you should be bloody well ashamed of yourself
37:33And the watercress beds
37:39You destroyed the watercress beds as well
37:43That used to be a source of industry years ago
37:45Totally gone
37:46We will be taking all your feedback into consideration
37:50I will have to go away
37:51And we will listen to your feedback
37:55I promise you
37:57Thank you
38:23Is it Mr. Lazarus?
38:25My name's Ash Smith
38:27This is my colleague Professor Peter Hammond
38:29We're doing some research on Thames water
38:31And, uh, listen, it's all off the record
38:35You're not disclosing the names of anyone we talk to
38:38We wondered if you could spare ten minutes
38:50People call me Mickey, first of all
38:51Thank you very much for coming here
38:52I know it's not easy, sir
38:53We appreciate it so much, I can't tell you
38:55I'm not a grass, okay?
38:58So, I did grass on my mate, like, in year eight, back in the day
39:01But this is different from grassing, right?
39:03This is like blowing the whistle
39:04I told you I'm an ex-copper
39:05Yeah
39:05You've told me that as well
39:06That's made me nervous
39:07This is not grass, is it?
39:08Grassing is like when you grass on your mates
39:09And blowing the whistle
39:11Whistle blowing is when you like grass on your boss
39:14Right
39:16We've got to start
39:17Um, all right
39:18Check this out
39:21Most water companies get sold every ten years or so
39:24JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley
39:27Kuwait Sovereign Fund
39:29Chinese banks, we've had them all, mate
39:38So, um, Macquarie bought us in 2006
39:41That's the, that's the Australian hedge fund
39:44It's known as the millionaire's factory
39:46Such are the reputed riches of many of Macquarie's key executives
39:50It's a vampire kangaroo
39:51That's it
39:52And they've earned that name because they are bloodsuckers
39:54Leading companies rely on Macquarie for advice
39:57Access to capital
39:58The first thing they did was sell our offices
40:01And then rent them back to us
40:03What?
40:04Wrong-uns
40:04They make Del Boy look like a fucking amateur
40:06Then they said that we had to get management clearance to buy pens
40:12Right to the top to buy a biro
40:15Not even a parker
40:16Not a fancy pen
40:16Just a normal pen
40:18Piss take, all right?
40:19Now, let's say this
40:20Right
40:21A pipe's broken
40:22What do you do?
40:23Normally, you take it out
40:23You put a new one in
40:25They would tell us to stick a collar around it
40:28It's not going to hold
40:29What's a collar?
40:30It's just like sticking plaster
40:31It's not going to hold
40:32It's a temporary fix
40:33The pipe's still rotten, okay?
40:35It's going to go again
40:36It's a botch job
40:37It's like Frankenstein
40:38Why don't they want to do it properly?
40:40Why don't they want to spend money and seal it properly?
40:43They don't give up monkeys about the works
40:45You know why?
40:46Because they're going to flip you
40:47If they don't want to spend any money on it
40:50How are they going to maintain your works?
40:52They don't give a shit, you know why?
40:54They're like dodgy house flippers
40:56They're going to go in there
40:57It's still rotten inside
40:58And they flip it, they're out
40:59That's why I banked with Macquarie
41:03Macquarie, when they flogged us
41:04They walked away with around 2.8 billion quid
41:09It's scandalous
41:12So, how do you know all this then, Mickey?
41:14I started working for Thames when I was 16
41:16Right, on my second day, I joined the union
41:20I get people ringing me up every day
41:21Mickey, it's all falling apart
41:24We can't keep it going
41:25Pete, if you were there working there
41:27You were an engineer
41:29You know, and the pumps ain't working
41:31You're at capacity
41:32What's your best option?
41:33Well, the best option, obviously
41:34is just to get rid of the sewage, I suppose
41:37The only option is to press the button that flushes it all out
41:44I'm not proud to admit that
41:47And I feel guilty, you know
41:49I see people swimming in these rivers
41:52And their kids swim in the rivers
41:54What am I supposed to do?
41:54I know what goes in there
41:55I'll put it in there
41:58We're at tipping point here, fellas
42:03So we have run the brain tests
42:07Heather's brain has lost the ability to control her vital organs
42:10And unfortunately, they are failing
42:15I'm really very sorry
42:18But I think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators
42:44I think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators
43:08Dear Professor Hammond
43:10I'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
43:21Which we thought you should see
43:29A girl of eight may have been the first person in Britain
43:33To have contracted fatal E. coli poisoning from raw sewage
43:38Ten other people, including four children
43:41Who 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
44:13Here we go
44:14All 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?
44:38All right, brother?
44:41There we go
44:43You're all right
44:43You're all right
44:57You're all right
45:41You're so sorry about getting in.
45:54All right, then.
46:08So, you know how I taught the machine to look for the anomalies in Whitney and Churchhamborough?
46:16Yeah, right. Well, have you been free jazzing your numbers again?
46:20Well, it's actually a lot of hard work, you know.
46:22Oh, no, sorry.
46:23Just looking for the patterns and spotting the deviations.
46:26Yeah, right.
46:27And you know that, you do know that when the machine sees an abnormality, it can only mean one thing,
46:34that it's dumping sewage.
46:35Yes.
46:36Okay, so, in the nine years that I've dated for, these two works alone, Whitney and Churchhamborough, they've dumped sewage
46:46a thousand times.
46:51These aren't accidents, Ash. It's a policy.
46:58This is starting to look like organized crime.
47:11Oh, fuck.
47:14No, this isn't right.
47:16That's shit.
47:19No, this ain't right.
47:20That's pure sewage.
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 gonna 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.
47:42Close the beach before this happens to somebody else.
47:46With their kids, with fishing nets, sitting amongst turds.
47:50Reuben!
47:54We need another whistleblower.
47:58We need another whistleblower.
48:27We need another whistleblower.
48:31We need another whistleblower.
48:35There's a убий
48:44There's a famous bill in sear.
48:46We don't promise they Vid 70.
48:48And now, for theытized vehicle, instrumented stock,
48:51we start to pay attention to Cadena Health,
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