It is regrettable that untreated sewage is often discharged into the Brue and waterways that contribute to the Brue. The main causes of this are from Combined Sewer Outfalls and groundwater seepage into old leaking sewer pipes.
Combined Sewer Outfalls are sewers which also serve to carry surface water – water from roofs, driveways, car parks and roads. Heavy rain will often overwhelm the ability of the water treatment centres to cope, and the flow is then diverted away from the treatment centres to discharge, untreated, into waterways.
High groundwater levels can have the same effect, overwhelming the WTCs ability to cope, even when rain has not been unduly heavy.
The excellent Channel 4 film Dirty Business shows that Thames Water neglected its water treatment installations and pumps to save money. There is no evidence that Wessex Water is behaving like this.
The main solution to sewage pollution is to renew the sewerage and the drains, separating sewage from surface water. This is an enormous and expensive task, which the water companies have addressed by requesting an increase in water bills.
Bills are to pay for services rendered in supplying clean water and managing sewage. It is not in any way appropriate for bills to be used to pay for the enormous infrastructure work required to stop sewage pollution of our rivers. The entire financing of the water industry needs a change, beginning with an end to the failed experiment of privatisation, followed by a massive New Deal to renew the sewerage system