Yorkshire Water removes 1.5-tonne fatberg from Leeds sewer

Yorkshire Water is urging people not to pour fats and oils down their sinks after key workers removed a fatberg weighing as much as a Mini Cooper from a Leeds city centre sewer.

The 1.5-tonne mass was recovered in City Square outside the Queens Hotel and in front of Channel 4’s new headquarters in the city.

A team from Yorkshire Water spent four nights on site breaking the blockage into pieces and removed several tonnes of fat that had built up in a 100m section of brick egg sewer.

In some sections the fat had blocked up to 60% of the sewer, preventing sewage from flowing naturally toward sewage treatment works. Further work will be required to remove all the fat deposits within the sewer.

Mark Hammond, head of customer field services at Yorkshire Water, said: “The disposal of fats and greases down sinks can result in significant blockages within the network.

“This fatberg was blocking 60% of the sewer’s capacity in some sections, which has the potential to cause sewage flooding for nearby businesses and the local environment. This incident took a lot of time, effort and teamwork to remove.

“While pouring fats and greases down the drain may seem harmless, we know from experience that the build ups caused by frequent disposal of these liquids can have significant consequences.

“Thankfully, our team was able to identify this particular blockage and remove it before it had an impact on our customers.

“We’d urge everyone to help fight fatbergs in our sewers by disposing of fat and oils in the bin and by only flushing the 3Ps – pee, poo and (toilet) paper.”