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Drainage Works at Mogden. Surface water in most parts of the district is drained in a
separate system and is discharged largely to the River Brent and to other water courses.
There are still 21 premises not connected to the Council's sewers, but these premises
are mostly situated in those small areas of the Borough not yet served by main sewers.
PREVENTION OF POLLUTION OF THE RIVER BRENT
The Brent enters the Borough at the boundary with Wembley and Willesden and
leaves the Borough at its boundary with Brentford and Isleworth, thus in its course it
roughly divides the Borough into two parts.
Responsibility for the prevention of pollution of the river is shared between the
County Council, who are responsible for the river itself under the Rivers Prevention of
Pollution Act, 1951, and the Borough Council who are responsible for preventing
contamination by surface water drains which enter the river, under the Public Health
Act, 1936. In the case of the Brent, which before its entry in the Borough flows through
industrial areas, the problem resolves itself into firstly by negotiation with the Councils
of these areas to ensure that the water is clean as it enters the Borough and secondly
by the action of our own Public Health Department to ensure that this state of affairs
is maintained during its flow through the Borough.
During 1963 the state of the water at the entry point has been much cleaner than in
the previous year, when it was heavily polluted with waste oil. During the year
inspection has continued in an attempt to trace and deal with unsatisfactory discharges
from several water outfalls at various sites along its length.
In the case of one meat processing factory, negotiations were commenced to secure
satisfactory drainage to the soil sewer from a vehicle washing area where waste water
and grease had formerly discharged to the surface water drainage system and thence
into the river.
In a second case surface water and waste water containing oil was found to be contaminating
Costons Brook, a small tributary of the Brent at Greenford. The offending
contaminating water is now to be diverted to the soil sewer, an improvement which
should remove a source of pollution which has concerned the Department for a
number of years.
The results of samples taken by the County Engineer are reported to the Public
Health Department. These are of two kinds, main river samples taken in mid-stream
and samples taken direct from surface water sewer outfalls. It is this latter which is of
particular help to us in determining wrongly connected drainage fittings causing
discharges which can be corrected.
Work in connection with river pollution is slow but the persistent efforts of the
Inspectors of the Department over a long period continue to effect improvement.
Details of the work carried out in 1963 are as follows:—
No. of inspections 106
No. of samples taken by:
County Engineer 14
(a) Satisfactory 3
(b) Unsatisfactory 11
13