Dangerous Levels of Ammonia Found at Wattisham Sewage Sludge Spreading Operation

Deben Climate Centre have, this week, been helping Wattisham residents and the local Councillors to analyse a pollution source coming from a large sewage sludge storage and spreading facility near Wattisham airbase after complaints of a foul stench and concerns about health issues.

Site operators FGS Agri appeared to have done nothing to prevent rain from washing the sludge, taken from Thames Water, into the nearby streams and rivers. Photographs of the storage area, a war-time concrete pad, show large cracks in the concrete structure and missing sections, allowing leakage of run-off with ease.

We tested 7 samples, one was particularly nasty odour, finding E.coli and other pollutant evidence. The worst one from a large puddle, close to the bunded biosolid storage area, showed an ammonia pollution level at over 85 ppm, sufficient to kill off any nearby aquatic life and indicative of a potentially serious pollution incident. UK guidelines are that healthy rivers and lakes contain no more than 0.25 ppm and 0.5ppm begins to be toxic, making these results more than 170 times higher than recommended safe levels for aquatic animals like water bugs and fish.

David Findley, the lead of our water testing and citizen science activites, who conducted the tests, said: “In three years of testing water around Suffolk, this is by far the highest ammonia concentration we have ever seen. It would kill all animal life in a pond, stream or river.”

The test results were shared by Wattisham volunteers with the EA Waste Team and Suffolk County Council. As a result of these findings Suffolk County Council have issued a “Temporary Stop Notice” on the facility so that no further deliveries of biosolids can be made for 56 days. This gives county council officers time to draw up a permanent stop notice. 

Robert Lindsay, local Suffolk County Councillor, said:

“Thank goodness the county council has now issued a temporary stop notice on this site. Thames Water’s sludge was being offered to farmers for spreading on fields all over the neighbouring countryside. But we don’t know what’s in it, and nor do the farmers.

“The Environment Agency don’t test for the many toxins, like the carcinogenic “forever” chemicals known as PFAS, and microplastics. But these have been found when samples have been tested elsewhere.”

Dan Pratt, Mid Suffolk District Councillor for the area, said: “The regulations on controlling what’s in this sludge haven’t been updated since 1989. They are in urgent need of updating. Many European countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland have already acted to control toxins in sludge. We should do the same.”

Robert Lindsay said: “The Environment Agency inspected the site in September and, unsurprisingly, found that FGS Agri had breached their permit. The war-time concrete pad FGS were storing this sewage on had not been sealed, even though they’d been ordered to do so after an earlier inspection in August. The foul stench detectable at nearby residences was also deemed a breach.”

For more information about our work on local pollution incidents visit our water quality page.