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to see. Years of rain, badgerless setts and bad luck
suddenly forgotten on this cool clear night as the very
countryside and animals were in harmony with us, happy
at giving us the unforgetable thrill of a real live
badger.
PAUL BATTERBURY
---oOo---
SATURDAY, DUNE 7th 1980. VISIT TO RIVERSIDE SEWAGE
TREATMENT WORKS AND RAINHAM MARSHES
This visit was arranged for Centenary Year to show how the
Thames has been cleaned up and was followed in November by
a very interesting talk given by Mr. wheeler who was involved
with the work when the fish returned to what had been a
'dead river'.
34 members met at Rainham Station. We drove round to the
sewerage works and were met by an overpowering smell as we
all got out of our cars. Manfully taking deep breaths
we were greeted by the staff, who apologised for the smell,
but they had just had a delivery of effluent from a country
district not connected to the usual sewers. We were then
split into two groups and one party went round the works
and the other to the laboratory In the lab a display had been
set up to show how, over the years, the Thames had been
restored to an unpolluted state and the fish had returned.
It was also explained how the effluent is tested at all
stages so that what is eventually pumped into the river is
almost pure water. We were then taken on a tour of the
works and shown the three different types of tank which
the sludge passes through, no chemicals are used in the
process and once the process is started there is no smell.
All the electricity used at the works is manufactured in
the plant from the digestion plant. In all a most interest-
ing and enlightening visit, although I think we were all
glad it was neither too hot nor raining.