Aviemore's Underground Arteries Clogged

18-Aug-08

Aviemore is well known as a base for healthy pursuits – skiing, mountain biking and hill walking – but a less than healthy underbelly has been revealed thanks to CCTV cameras inserted in the area’s sewer system.

A thick layer of hardened fat has been found clogging sections of the sewer system. The investigation was prompted following an incident where sewage backed up into a local property, causing flooding. Such blockages are caused when fat poured down drains cools and hardens.

The fat has been cleared and Scottish Water is appealing to residents and visitors in the Aviemore area to consider carefully what they pour down plugholes and drains. In Scotland it is illegal to dispose of fats, oils and greases this way.

Anyone caught could be fined or made to pay any clean up costs.

Alan Kellock, Scottish Water’s trade effluent adviser for the Highlands, said: “We would really appreciate help from the community and local businesses to prevent this sort of thing happening. The wonderful environment of the Cairngorms is being put at risk. It is also taking up valuable time and resources. We always urge householders to bag and bin any cooking fats rather than pouring them down plugholes and drains, and businesses such as B&Bs and hotels should have proper catering fat traps installed.”

SENSITIVE ENVIRONMENT OF RIVER SPEY AT RISK

Waste water from homes and business in the Coylumbridge and Inverdruie areas flows to a pumping station near where the River Druie joins the River Spey. From here sewage is pumped through Aviemore to the treatment works at Granish.

The thick layer of fat coating the sewers was discovered in sections in the south of the village and at the pumping station, suggesting that the fat is coming from the Inverdruie and Coylumbridge areas. If the pumping station becomes choked, it is designed to carry out an emergency discharge to the River Druie which in turn would flow into the Spey.

Whoever is disposing of fat down the sewer system is putting the sensitive environment of the Spey at risk. Most household waste water pipes are only an inch or so in diameter so people disposing of fats, oils and greases this way are also risking blockages within their own properties.