Edinburgh sewers taken for a rough ride

In the newest example of SA Water’s ‘that doesn’t belong there’ series, crews have removed car rims and concrete covers from a sewer chamber in Adelaide’s north – which had the potential to cause sewage overflows from the local network.

The haul of bizarre objects from Edinburgh’s sewers included five car rims, two rectangular concrete covers, a circular concrete cover, and smaller pieces of broken concrete.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Field Operations Colin Bell said this latest daring disposal of unflushables risked ‘wheely’ nasty overflows to the street, environment or inside the buildings of nearby businesses.

“It never ceases to amaze us with all of the weird and wonderful items that manage to find their way into our sewers, and this latest haul certainly has to be one of the more peculiar discoveries,” Colin said.

“Fortunately, on this occasion, our crews were able to remove the assortment of objects before they caused an overflow – potentially sparing a few nearby properties.

“We identified the cluster of unflushables while clearing a blockage in the sewer pipe, with our crews finding the car rims and concrete covers at the bottom of the chamber.

“Due to the chamber’s depth and how much each object weighed, they required the help of an excavator to safely pull them out, by attaching several lifting slings to each item – with this work taking more than two hours to complete.

“It’s rather frustrating, as this flushing behaviour created unnecessary cost and work, and could’ve negatively impacted the local community if the blockage worsened – along with significant safety risks from falling into the chamber, or to the community if the lid was not secured properly.

“I don’t think the offender would’ve tried to flush these types of objects, so it’s likely they managed to remove the sewer chamber’s access cover on the road and push the items inside.

“The more appropriate solution is to find your nearest resource recovery centre to dispose of things like car rims or building material, and considering the effort required to remove our chamber’s cover, is much easier for everyone involved!

“If the culprit would like their car rims back, we’d be happy to return them – but they might just be a bit stinky, and it’ll come with a lecture on why dumping them in our sewers isn’t the brightest idea.

“We all need to respect our sewers instead of treating them like bins, and in turn, they’ll look after us.”

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