Urban Pollution impacts on Ealing’s Rivers

In Ealing, and much of London, the gully drains on the road are designed to carry away rain water. It prevents road flooding local to the gully. This water from the gully flows directly into the local river. So any urban pollution that runs into these drains really affects the rivers and water system .

The case of Burcu Yesilyurt in October 2025 when she was fined £150 for pouring coffee dregs down a road gully in Richmond, raised this issue of urban pollution and the fines and regulations around this. This example produced mixed feelings among river campaigners on the Brent, including CURB (Clean up river Brent). They definitely don’t favour on the spot fines for petty offences like this, but the inappropriate use of surface water drains and urban pollution is probably the biggest obstacle to healthy urban rivers.

Urbanisation effects on rivers

Many people do not realise that when it rains in towns and cities that once the water hits the ground and then disappears into the drain that it’ll end up in one of our rivers. In Ealing, and much of London, the surface water drainage system, designed to carry away rain water and prevent flooding, flows directly into the local river. So urban pollution really affects this water system.

Before houses and streets were constructed quite a lot of London was a network of wetlands. Ealing was farmland, with a system of drainage ditches. Some of those ditches were actually streams, tributaries of the Brent or Thames, fed by springs and running all year round. We can still see Coston’s Brook, in Northolt and at Paradise Fields, where it is called Bullibrook, or in Pear Tree Park. We also have the Boundary Stream in Long Wood Nature Reserve following its course now as centuries ago. Sadly we have lost the Radbourne and the Bollo, now confined largely to pipes and gullies under the paved surface

For an interesting history of the Bollo Brook and where it can be found now in Gunnersbury park and it’s important relationship Chiswick house and gardens, read more on London’s Lost Rivers.

Why is it wrong to pour anything other than clean water down a road gully?

Because this surface water network runs directly into rivers, they are extremely vulnerable to whatever we leave on the ground. All this is urban pollution. If you are washing your car by a road gully, the chances are the detergents and polishes will be making their way to a river. If you rinse paint brushes and tip the residue down a surface drain, that will quite often show up later in the river as a visible pollution incident.

Many houses have extensions whose sewage is mistakenly plumbed into the river, via a misconnection to the surface water network In fact, on the Brent alone, there are hundreds of such cases, and the legal liability is with the property owner. Another reason to make sure every car journey is strictly necessary is all forms of cars leave toxic tyre wear on road surfaces (Tyres and microplastics: time to reinvent the wheel?), which is then washed by rainfall into rivers.

We all live in river catchments. You could even say that when it is raining, we are in the river: the water bouncing off our umbrellas, splashing around our shoes, or trickling down our necks. It is flowing downhill, coming together, forming rivulets, runnels, streams and finally rivers, until it reaches the sea.

How Can I Look After my River Catchment?

Your river catchment is your area. We are all caught in catchments. You can help your river by:

• keeping the ground around you clean. This will prevent pollution from washing into streams.
• keeping your surface drains clean. Understand how your home is connected to the water system. Make sure your sewage goes into the foul sewer, for treatment, not into the surface water system. Dishwashers, washing machines, showers, basins, and of course toilets all produce foul sewage, which should not be discharged into rivers.
• encouraging rain water to soak into the ground, or settle in planters and water butts. Urban rivers Urban rivers pose a flood risk, and their banks get badly eroded, because we have paved over huge areas which used to absorb rain water into the ground. By slowing the release of this water into rivers, we can help them become more inhabitable, less volatile.
• helping keep rain water out of our foul sewers, which are built largely to follow water courses (because that is where gravity leads them). Sometimes our rain gutters are mistakenly connected to the foul network. If we reduce the water going into the sewers will avoid them discharging untreated sewage into rivers. This happens when they become so full they are in danger of backing up into properties.
• replacing unnecessary paving on your property. By replacing tarmac, concrete, or paving stones with gravel or plants this will help water soak into the ground. This will ease flood pressure and reducing river pollution. Take inspiration from Residents invited wildlife into their driveway transformation.

For more information and advice on where should our rain goes from Thames 21.

Urban Pollution of Rivers

Burcu was interviewed by the BBC on being fined for coffee poured in drain. She spoke very fluently about her experience, which was clearly not a pleasant one. We are very happy her fine was cancelled, and hope she feels better after her ordeal.

But we are happy that this case has brought to light the very important matter of surface water pollution. This is something we are going to have to address if we want London to have Clean and Healthy Rivers.

Find out more and get involved with CURB at Clean up River Brent – CURB and their CURB Facebook group. See also their short film The River Remembers: A Call to Action.

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