Recently I attended a meeting at Milton Avenue balancing pond with representatives from Severn Trent Water and the City Council, to look at the problems with water quality from pollution that is entering the pond, fed by the culverted watercourse.

In recent years some improvements have been made to the water quality by identifying dropped connections such as the one on Podsmead Road, but there is still a way to go.

While on site ‘grey’ water (sink/ washing machine type) was observed entering the pond from the outfall, indicating potential misconnections in the upstream catchment.

The amount observed was not of significant immediate pollution concern, but it was appreciated that it was undesirable (fish were observed in the pond).

Severn Trent Water assessed their assets which discharge into the culverted watercourse, and that could be investigated.

The process would be to lift various sewer covers to check for grey water staining/ evidence of misconnections, and trace them back to the source if possible.

Severn Trent opened the surface water sewer adjacent to the balancing pond, which was observed to be clear of grey water, so this has eliminated that immediate area. They are now going to look at investigating other locations further upstream in the catchment and report findings back to the council.

The council will investigate undertaking a camera inspection of the culvert following Severn Trent’s feedback from their inspections

The council are also proposing to install a simple reed/ natural forebay to the pond to help with water quality.

I will be relaying further information from Severn Trent and the council as I have it. I am grateful to them for meeting with me and undertaking this work, and also to the many volunteers who have helped to maintain this site over the years.

If you have any questions or feedback do let me know.