South West Water is the latest victim of a giant fatberg blocking its sewers. Longer than six back-to-back double-decker buses at 64 metres in length, it is the biggest discovered in our service history and thought to be one of the largest found so close to the sea.

It is formed from everything that has been flushed or poured down the sinks of Sidmouth that shouldn’t have been, including wet wipes and fat, oil and grease.

More coverage and a nice video from the BBC.

The pan-European water sector association EurEau has published a new briefing note on the impacts of microplastics on the water sector.

It highlights some of the ways microplastics enter the aquatic environment and the role of the water sector in mitigating this.

There is no significant presence of microplastics in drinking water as the wastewater treatment process removes most of the particles. However, doing so jeopardises the possible circular economy options for sewage sludge.

The briefing note concludes that control at source measures are the only viable option to keeping the circular economy.

The UK published its first research on micropollutants (drinking water and waste water both covered) and there is also a press release from Water UK.