210-foot 'fatberg' clogs sewer in English town

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Wastewater workers in an English town announced they discovered a "fatberg" larger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the town's sewers.

South West Water said sewer workers discovered the fatberg, a mass of hardened fat, oil and wet-wipes from local drains and toilets, in a sewer near a children's playground in the English channel coast town of Sidmouth.

The service said the fatberg, which measures about 210 feet long -- more than the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and about the size of six double-decker buses -- is the largest its workers have ever found in the counties of Devon or Cornwall.

"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," South West Water Director of Wastewater Andrew Roantree told Devon Live. "Thankfully it has been identified in good time with no risk to bathing waters."

"If you keep just one new year's resolution this year, let it be to not pour fats, oil or grease down the drain, or flush wet-wipes down the loo. The consequences can be significant -- including sewer flooding in your own home," he said. "Put your pipes on a diet and don't feed the fatberg."

Thames Water in London announced in September 2017 that workers had discovered an 820-foot fatberg in the city's sewers. Officials said the mass might have been the largest on record.

The phenomenon isn't limited to British sewers -- Michigan's Macomb County Public Works Office said a 100-foot fatberg was removed from a Detroit-area sewer in September 2018.