A broken pump at the Seafield wastewater treatment plant has again led to sewage being pumped into the Forth, almost a year after a massive spill at the plant. It emerged this month that a pump has again broken down, sparking fears of a repeat among local residents. The leak last April was also caused by a broken pump and saw 120 million litres of untreated sewage being spilled into the sea.
After the latest breakdown on Wednesday 12 March 2008, excess "mixed sewage" was pumped out through a pipe around two kilometres from the shoreline. It took around 12 hours for engineers to address the problem and temporary pumps were installed in the meantime. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have since stressed that the incident has caused no environmental damage.
Rob Kirkwood, a spokesman for the Leith Links Residents' Association, who have long campaigned for action on foul smells emanating from the plant, said he was concerned at the latest failure. "This is very worrying. We're concerned that machinery could have broken down again and sewage was being pumped out to sea. When we woke up in Leith there was a terrible smell. They're supposed to have a back-up pump in case this happens, but they've had to bring in rental pumps instead."
However, a spokesman for SEPA said the temporary pumps had only been brought in while the main pump was being repaired. "On Wednesday we were aware of a failure of a pump at Seafield. That resulted in the need to discharge mixed sewage waste through a two kilometre pipe. There should be no environmental impact. By 6am the next morning the pump was fixed. We are not aware of any ongoing problems."
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