A THAMES water boss admitted that the company is not sure when it is discharging untreated sewage or not at a talk this weekend. 

Cathryn Ross, Thames Water Strategy and Regulatory Affairs Director spoke at a protest held at Port Meadow on May 20 to campaigners against river pollution.

She was cheered after she said: "Discharging untreated sewage in to our rivers is unacceptable. Some of it is legal, some of it is illegal, but all of it is unacceptable."

PHOTOS: Haunting figures float down Thames in sewage protest

Ms Ross admitted that there were issues with not only the sewage discharge itself but the facilities in charge of treating the sewage, and was heckled to tell onlookers why the issue hadn't been fixed.

At the beginning of this year, Witney Sewage Treatment Works discharged untreated sewage into the River Windrush for 16 days in a row. 

READ MORE: Sewage has been put into the river every single day this year

Ms Ross confirmed that the Witney plant is one of the facilities in need of an update, as it is over 50 years old, but £9 m is set to be invested in the plant by 2024.

Speaking to this paper after her talk, she clarified: "We've got a couple of problems. We don't have the data to know when we are complying and when we are not complying. Some of [the sewage discharge] is when it rains a lot. Some of that is stormwater. If we can do more to stop infiltration then we can stop sewage treatment facilities from being overwhelmed.

"We need to stop being complacent."

Read more from this author

This story was written by Shosha Adie. 

She joined the team in 2022 as a digital reporter.   

To get in touch with her email: Shosha.Adie@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter: @ShoshaAdie

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