"It's a bit like paying your waste collection supplier to take away your rubbish and fly-tipping it."
These were the shocked words of the owner of a wild swimming hotspot after he discovered sewage is being dumped into the River Avon.
Wessex Water has admitted to releasing untreated sewage from three combined sewage overflows (CSOs) upstream of Warleigh Weir, near Bath, for a total of 335 hours in 2019, reports The Guardian.
Bosses at the authority said water quality was affected by far wider sources of bacteria than “intermittent discharges from the CSOs during heavy rainfall”.
Johnny Palmer, who owns the island and field at the weir near Claverton said he was shocked by the news, as he looks to get bathing water status for the area.
“When I was told, I was like, ‘Woah, hold on. Back up a second. Seriously?’ I didn’t realise storm water mixed with untreated sewage flowed into our river," said Mr Palmer.
“This is a company that makes a 30 per cent net profit from what is a government-sanctioned monopoly.
"Customers should be asking, ‘Why am I paying for water and sewerage services when they are dumping s**t in the rivers?’”
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Bathing water status forces water companies and the Environment Agency to ensure water quality is fit for public health.
A spokesman for Wessex Water told Somerset Live: “In an ideal world there would not be a combined sewerage system, but many sewers were laid at a time when only one drain served a property – carrying both rainwater and sewage.
"We would embrace the idea of getting rid of overflows, but that would require significant investment, so a further change in the regulatory approach is needed.
"We'd also need a change of approach by government to no longer allow developers to have the right to connect surface water to combined systems, which adds to sewer capacity causing overflows to operate.
"We have invested where we can to make improvements, and since 2000 we have invested £181m to upgrade more than 582 CSOs, and there are plans to improve more over the next five years.”
The Guardian reported the Rivers Trust is now monitoring the river near Warleigh Weir on dry days and after rainfall to measure the impact of the pollution.
In a video, Mr Palmer said: "This movement needs a more grassroots, local, parochial, disruptive and aggressive approach to that shift in perspective.
'We are going to force change'
"Sewage free swimmers, groups like the people I am friends with at Warleigh Weir and others all over the country are going to start a campaign to local press and local communities to communicate this kind of information and start campaigning to make our rivers clean.
"What is going to happen is we are going to ramp up the pressure on water companies, and other polluters as well.
"We are going to force change to make our rivers cleaner and we are going to make it so the water companies really need to listen because if they don't the PR cost is going to be so high.
"People are paying water companies to deal with their sewage, meanwhile water companies are literally pumping s**t into the rivers."
