U.K. Ends Sea Dumping of Sludge, But Incineration Worries Environmentalists

In the United Kingdom Thames Water's decision to incinerate sludge from wastewater treatment operations rather than dump it at sea has raised new concerns over air pollution.

The company intends to end the practice of dumping this sludge in the North Sea within the week. This comes after more than 100 years of following the practice as a result of recent EU regulations. All wastewater treatment dischargers to the coastal waters around the U.K. will follow the same rules.

Environmentalists insist that ending the dumping will mean a cleaner sea but warn that the alternative system of burning the material could pose additional health problems.

The £165 million ($275 million) waste-to-power incineration scheme, launched by the Duke of Edinburgh in a ceremony in November, will dispose of about three million tons of sludge per year while generating enough electricity to power around 19,000 homes.

Mike Childs, the pollution spokesman for the Friends of the Earth group, has expressed concern about worsening air quality in the area around the two plants at Beckton and Crossness on the Thames, near Bexley. He said: "This is an area already heavily industrialised and where health studies have revealed high levels of respiratory disease, particularly among children. These two new plants can only increase problems for the local communities on bad air days."

However, Thames Water says the generators were built with the most sophisticated filters available to keep toxic emissions to the minimum. The water company intends to monitor emissions to ensure they do not go beyond health guidelines. The company also maintains that the sludge dumped off shore, encased in concrete, did no damage to the ocean, but environmentalists argue that highly toxic metals and chemicals were able to leak out, threatening marine life.