Residents of Acton and North Chiswick have been troubled by a strong odour coming from Acton Pumping Station. At a drop-in consultation held by Thames Water at St Mary's Church on Thursday, it was revealed that the site will be cleaned within a week in order to remove the current smell, but that fixing the underlying technical defect could take as long as 10 days.

Solving the present problems at the site involves a two-step process: firstly, Thames Water plan to clean the station thoroughly and then attempt to ascertain what is going wrong with the machinery.

Thames Water have said that hose machines will be brought to Acton by next week, and they will try to avoid causing further disruption by using these machines during the day rather than overnight.

Preventing further odour problems in the future may take longer, as the exact problem with the equipment at Acton Pumping Station remains a mystery. The jet-mixing system which cleans the tanks has not been functioning properly, leaving a dirty residue at the bottom.

To diagnose the problem, Thames Water has called in a specialist contractor to run tests at the station. According to the sewage treatment and water supply company's website, the process "could take up to 10 days" to be completed.

 

August 8, 2014