Scottish Water slammed over raw sewage from antiquated sewer pipe spilling onto Golspie beach
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A Golspie householder has accused Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) of years of inaction over an antiquated sewer pipe out of which raw sewage regularly spills close to his home.
Retired maths teacher Robert Mackay, Ferry Road, says the untreated waste is then hosed into a nearby watercourse which has an outfall into the sea on a stretch of Golspie beach where children paddle.
He is aghast that more connections continue to be made to the pipe with a new overnight camping facility for motorhomes at Golspie Business Park set to be linked in.
“There is no point in the people of Sutherland complaining about motorhomes irresponsibly tipping their waste into water courses when the very authority in charge of this are quite happily doing it,” said Mr Mackay.
The cast-iron sewer pipe runs for around three quarters of a mile from Drummuie to a pumping station at the village.
It serves the Highland Council area headquarters at Drummuie as well as the new housing there. There are also connections to it from the Lawson Memorial Hospital, the business park and from houses on part of Ferry Road.
Mr Mackay estimates the pipe must be at least 100 years old and says it is so narrow that it does not meet the diameter size required under current building regulations for a single residential dwelling.
In heavy rain, or when the pipe becomes blocked, the sewage spills out either from an inspection plate close to Mr Mackay's garden or from two manhole covers, one at the business park.
“The inspection plate is so rusty there are more holes than actual plate,” he said.
Overflows happen on average between two to three times a year and it is claimed Scottish Water workers deal with it by digging out the sewage and hosing it along to where it enters a watercourse.
Mr Mackay said: “This is raw sewage spilling out of an inadequate sewer and running into a water course that empties directly onto the beach opposite the Free Church. It happened recently during the school holidays when kids were paddling in the sea."
He has complained frequently for years to Scottish Water and latterly also to SEPA. He has also contacted Sutherland MP Jamie Stone, both present and former MSPs and Highland Council’s environmental health department.
“Scottish Water and SEPA do not seem interested,” he said. “The sewer is inadequate and needs to be replaced. They keep adding connections to it when they know it is not capable of handling it.”
Jamie Stone said: “My office has previously made representations to both Scottish Water and SEPA about this problem.
“It is deeply disappointing that, several years on, Mr Mackay still has no resolution. It is not right that residents are forced to endure even the most basic infrastructure crumbling beneath their feet."
A spokesman for Scottish Water said: “We are sorry that Mr Mackay’s garden has been affected by repeated flooding from a section of sewer that serves customers at the southern end of Golspie – we appreciate this is unpleasant and that the recurrence of the issue causes understandable frustration.
“The recent incident was found by our local team to be caused by soil and stones being washed into the sewer via a displaced cover, which unfortunately then resulted in a blockage. Our local team attended as quickly as possible to restore the normal operation of the sewer and carry out a clean-up of the affected area.
“In response to earlier incidents at this location, the sewer has been surveyed; and cleaning within the pipe has been carried out on a scheduled basis in an effort to minimise the risk of blockages.
"A new cover has now also been installed to prevent debris being washed into the sewer by stormwater; and our local team has installed mitigating measures in an effort to reduce the risk of debris from the sewer entering Mr Mackay’s garden or the environment in the future.
“This part of Golspie’s sewer network should only receive foul flows, and any presence of surface water significantly increases the risk of flooding due to the much higher peak flows during storm conditions.
"Our earlier investigations have resulted in two surface water misconnections being removed. We are continuing to investigate what more can be done to prevent further blockages as far as we can.
“Applications for new connections to the sewer network in Golspie will be checked via our established process.Where there is concern about the capacity of the sewer network to receive additional flows, developers are required to assess this in detail. In the event that a new connection has a detrimental impact on service to existing customers, the developer would have to carry out work to mitigate this impact before connecting.”
A SEPA spokesman said: “SEPA was contacted by a member of the public on August 3 regarding a sewer surcharge in the Golspie area.
"A SEPA officer attended the site to investigate and observed evidence of a recent surcharge event. SEPA contacted Scottish Water regarding the incident, and they investigated to detect the source and have installed mitigating measures in an effort to reduce the risk of debris from the sewer entering Mr Mackay’s garden or the environment in the future.
"SEPA will continue to monitor the situation and liaise with Scottish Water on the results.
“We have highlighted to Scottish Water the complainant’s ongoing concerns and will be engaging with them should future works have any licence implications.”
