\n An Anglian Water worker inspecting the spill at Burnham Overy Staithe (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n Villagers complained to Anglian Water after foul water began bubbling up from narrow Chapel Lane at Bunrham Overy Staithe, near Wells.\n<\/p>\n
\n The harbour at Burnham Overy Staithe (Image: Chris Bishop)\n<\/p>\n
\n Large puddles formed, making the route, which leads down to the harbour, impassable.\n<\/p>\n
\n Locals also feared the spillage could seep into a nearby drainage ditch running along the edge of reclaimed pasture, at the foot of the floodbank beside the harbour and the River Burn estuary.\n<\/p>\n
\n The spill happened on Chapel Lane, which leads between houses down towards the harbour at Burnham Overy Staithe (Image: Chris Bishop)\n<\/p>\n
\n Anglian Water said its staff had removed “significant amounts of silt, stone and other debris” from the pipe using specialist jetting and suction equipment.<\/p>\n
A spokesman added: “We\u2019ve since carried out extensive investigations and cleaning work across the local network, which have identified a significant build-up of sediment and debris within sections of the sewer, restricting flows and contributing to blockages.\n<\/p>\n
\n An Anglian Water van near the site of the sewage spill (Image: Chris Bishop)\n<\/p>\n
\n “While our investigations haven\u2019t indicated any harm to the local environment as a result of this blockage, we\u2019re continuing to monitor the situation so that we can respond quickly to any environmental impact.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Anglian Water said while some sewage did spill onto a nearby footpath, teams were able to clear it up quickly.\n<\/p>\n
\n Narrow Chapel Lane, at Burnham Overy Staithe (Image: Chris Bishop)\n<\/p>\n
\n The utility firm first attended the site on June 24 and has since carried out further cleaning work downstream of the original blockage.\n<\/p>\n
\n The spokesman said unflushable items are a major factor in sewer blockages across the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “Our teams remove more than 2,800 tonnes of unflushable items from our region’s sewers every year, mostly made up of wet wipes, cotton buds, and sanitary products.\n<\/p>\n
\n The drain which overflowed on Chapel Lane after a blockage in the sewage system (Image: Chris Bishop)\n<\/p>\n
\n “These unflushable items cause blockages that reduce the capacity of our sewers, causing flooding and pollution.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 80pc of sewer flooding incidents are caused by blockages, many of which result from unflushable items entering the sewer network.\n<\/p>\n
\n Investigations are ongoing into the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Anglian Water worker inspecting the spill at Burnham Overy Staithe (Image: Supplied) Villagers complained to Anglian Water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}