Officials Find Another Massive Fatberg Blocking Sewer In Britain

Officials found a giant obstruction inside an English seaside town's sewer made up of hardened fat, oil, wet wipes, and other trash on Tuesday, according to National Public Radio.

South West Water said the latest fatberg found in the town of Sidmouth in Devon was 210 feet long, which is more than 13 end-to-end Hummers.

"It is the largest discovered in our service history and will take our sewer team around eight weeks to dissect this monster in exceptionally challenging work conditions," Andrew Roantree, South West Water's director of wastewater, said.

Officials will now send in a sewer team to use high-pressure jets, shovels, and axes to help remove the fatberg - bit by bit.

"It's the first time we have excavated a fatberg of this size and the confined space might mean it takes us a little longer or shorter," SWW said.

The removal will begin in early February but could be delayed by heavy rain.

SWW said, "the fatberg has had no impact on Sidmouth's excellent bathing water quality and has been discovered in good time."

But the company also warned customers about the danger of pouring oil down the sink and the increased popularity of flushing wet wipes.

SWW said it fights dozens of new blockages every day, which can add up to £4.5million – about $5.7 million U.S. — every year.

Officials in London discovered a massive 130-ton fatberg in the East End neighborhood in 2017 which became notorious and was even placed into a display at the Museum of London.

The section of the fatberg is placed in a display case to "fascinate and disgust future Londoners."

That fatberg weighed the same as 11 double-decker buses and is one of the largest to form inside the London sewer system.

"It's a total monster and taking a lot of manpower and machinery to remove as it's set hard," said Matt Rimmer head of waste networks for Thames Water.

The problem has also occurred in the United States in 2017, when a fatberg in Baltimore caused a sewer to overflow and dump 1.2 million gallons of sewage into Jones Falls.

"There's some back and forth in the industry as to what wipes are flushable, what wipes are not flushable. We, for the record, try to keep it simple. It's poo. It's pee. And it's toilet paper. If it's not 1 of those 3, it doesn't go down a toilet," Jeffrey Raymond, communications chief for the city's Department of Public Works, told NPR.

-WN.com, Maureen Foody