‘Brown stinking sewage’ released in Manchester river at start of fishing season

It should have been a perfectly pleasant way to spend a morning.

Sunday, 16 June, was the opening day of the fishing season and Mike Duddy, chair of Salford Friendly Anglers Society, the world’s oldest fishing club, was in the River Irwell in Manchester city centre hoping for a catch.

But two hours in and he’d not had a sniff, not even a minnow or a stickleback. At this time of year, the Irwell should be stuffed full with dace, roach or chub.

Then it rained for what Mr Duddy describes as no more than three minutes and a potential answer was revealed.

A thick sludge of brown excrement started heading towards him from a nearby Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) pipe maintained by United Utilities, the country’s largest water company.

Mr Duddy and his companion quickly got out of the water, having caught one fish between them. On the same day last year, they caught around 100.

“You can see the bits [of faeces] and everything, you can smell it, who wants to go and fish in a river of filth? It’s shocking,” Mr Duddy told i.

CSOs are designed to reduce the risk of sewage backing up into properties during periods of heavy rainfall. The government and water companies argue they are a “necessary” part of the sewage system.

But critics say they have not been upgraded to cope with increased rainfall and population growth, and are too frequently used by water companies to discharge sewage when weather conditions are dry.

The CSO which discharged near Manchester city centre on Sunday spilled 104 times for more than 696 hours in 2023, according to data published by United Utilities.

The primary reason for its poor performance is listed by UU as “hydraulic capacity” – in other words, it cannot cope with the amount of rainfall and sewage it is receiving.

Although there was heavy rainfall across north-west England on Saturday, it had cleared by the evening and there were no weather warnings in place on Sunday.

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for United Utilities told i: “Our teams are currently investigating.”

Water companies including United Utilities have recently begun publishing a live map of sewer discharges which is available to the public.

On Monday morning, the Julia Street CSO on the River Irwell was marked with a purple circle, meaning it had discharged in the past 24 hours.

According to UU’s website, it began discharging at 10.12am on Sunday and continued until 10.20am.

For Mr Duddy, who previously worked for the Mersey Rivers Trust, there is no excuse for the sewage discharge he witnessed.

“The law says they [water companies] are only allowed to discharge in exceptional circumstances,” he said.

“It rained hard for less than five minutes then it stopped. Is three minutes of a short shower in Manchester exceptional circumstances? It’s not, no chance, it’s a normal amount of rainfall.

“Why are they spilling during minor amounts of rainfall? We see it all too often. There’s absolutely no capacity in the sewage network.”

Curious to understand why the company does this. Obviously cost is going to be a driver but why is it unreasonably expensive? Is there so much waste that they can’t cart it off or pipe it to a treatment plant?

Sure it’s not just make-up water that’s been washed down the sink?

They Destroy & Pullute our Own Rivers & Ecology & Living Enviroment while in the process huge dividends are paid out to large Shareholders, They then announce that Customers need to pay more.

It’s the Insidious Benefits of having Foreign Money Men & Corporations in charge of large Private Utilities.