sewer

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The Gross Reason Why a Bryan Adams Concert Was Canceled

Show at Perth's RAC Arena canceled due to fatberg blockage in sewers

(Newser) - A sold-out Bryan Adams concert in Australia was nixed before it even began, because—do we have to say the words?—the concert venue's sewers were mucked up by a giant blockage made of "fat, grease, and rags," reports the BBC . Per concert promoter Frontier Touring , the...

Cat Was Missing for 2 Months. Then, 'a Little Paw Shot Out'

Tabby named Drifter expected to make full recovery after getting trapped in sewer in Duluth, Minnesota

(Newser) - A cat aptly named Drifter is safe at home after sneaking outside and getting trapped in a sewer for nearly eight weeks. The 3-year-old tabby—an indoor feline who had aspirations of being an outdoor cat—went missing from the home of Clifton Nesseth and Ashley Comstock in the northeastern...

Elite Eton Delays Opening Due to Overflowing Toilets
Elite Boys School
Has a Potty Problem
Jan 11, 2024 10:05 AM CST

Elite Boys School Has a Potty Problem

UK's Eton College delays semester start after Thames sewers overflow, flooding toilets

(Newser) - Students at Eton College started their next semester remotely on Wednesday—not because of COVID or any other contagion, but due to a lavatory issue. Thanks to recent heavy rains in the UK, the Thames has overflowed, which in turn has flooded sewers in Berkshire, where the elite boys boarding...

8 Die in Moscow Sewer Disaster
8 Die in Moscow
Sewer Disaster
Aug 22, 2023 7:00 PM CDT

8 Die in Moscow Sewer Disaster

They were trapped by flooding, authorities say

(Newser) - Russian authorities are seeking the organizers of a tour that took people into Moscow's sewer system during heavy rains, with tragic results. In what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called a "terrible tragedy," eight people, including a tour guide, died Sunday after flooding trapped them in the sewer...

'Second River Thames' Built Below London

Massive project will take pressure off 19th-century sewer system

(Newser) - The River Thames is a cleaner river than it was a few decades ago—and far cleaner than it was in Victorian times, when survivors of a shipwreck on the outskirts of London died from ingesting polluted water—but there's still plenty of room for improvement. That's the...

Engagement Ring Lost Down Toilet Found 14 Months Later

Workers had told man it might be found someday

(Newser) - It may have spent longer in the sewer than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but a Chino Hills, California, resident has finally been reunited with an engagement ring flushed down the toilet more than a year ago. City officials say a man's soon-to-be stepson accidentally flushed the ring in...

Sound Coming From Sewer Was Cause for Celebration

Boy in Germany found after being trapped for 8 days

(Newser) - Hearing a noise come from a manhole cover sounds like an ominous happening, but in the German town of Oldenburg, it was a joyous occurrence. The sound—which euronews describes as "whimpering"—turned out to be made by an 8-year-old boy who had vanished on June 17. A...

Massive Sewage Spill Mucks Up California Coast

Sewer line failure caused a stink in LA County

(Newser) - A sewer line failure of epic proportions is causing a real stink in Southern California. Per the LA Times , beaches stretching from Los Angeles to Long Beach have been shut down after millions of gallons of raw sewage on Thursday spewed into the Dominguez Channel, which terminates into the Los...

Sewer Blast Kills 10, Injures More Than a Dozen

Officials still aren't sure what ignited gas that caused explosion in Karachi, Pakistan

(Newser) - A powerful gas explosion in a sewage system in a southern Pakistan city killed at least 10 people and injured 13 others Saturday, police and a health official said. Police spokesman Sohail Jokhio said the blast was apparently caused when something ignited gas that had accumulated in the sewer beneath...

Pandemic Side Effect: Clogged Sewers
Pandemic
Side Effect:
Sewer Woes
Jun 4, 2020 12:07 AM CDT

Pandemic Side Effect: Sewer Woes

People have been flushing masks, gloves

(Newser) - Mayor Jim Kenney kicked off a recent briefing on Philadelphia's coronavirus response with an unusual request for residents: Be careful what you flush. Between mid-March, when the city’s stay-at-home order was issued, and the end of April, most of the 19 sewer and storm water pumping stations in...

City Warns Against Using T-Shirts for Toilet Paper

Shredded shirts clogged sewer line

(Newser) - With many Americans having trouble finding toilet paper amid coronavirus panic buying, sewer officials have issued a plea: Use whatever alternatives you want, but please don't flush them afterward. "Bag it, don't flush it," say officials in Redding, Calif., where somebody almost caused a spill Wednesday...

Below London, a Blue Whale-Sized 'Concreteberg'

Work to clear the blockage starts next week

(Newser) - A lesson from London: Don't pour concrete down the drain. Otherwise, you might be left with a "concreteberg" like the one currently blocking three central sewers in the Islington borough of the UK capital. It turns out the 115-ton, 330-foot-long mass discovered during a routine check earlier this...

Handprints Helped Save Boy Stuck in LA Sewers

Jesse Hernandez was rescued after 13 hours

(Newser) - The story of 13-year-old Jesse Hernandez might have had a far more tragic ending if not for handprints the boy left on a tunnel wall after he plummeted through a broken plank into the Los Angeles sewer system. After hours of searching Sunday, city workers put cameras tethered with 1,...

In the World's Most Crowded City, the 'World's Worst Job'

A look at the sewer cleaners of Dhaka

(Newser) - New York is America's most crowded city , at about 27,000 people per square mile. That's downright airy compared to Dhaka, Bangladesh, which ranks as the planet's densest city at 115,000 people per square mile. And as the Guardian reports, it's not just overflowing with...

'Beast Finally Defeated:' London's Fatberg Is No More

A 140-ton fatberg is gone from the city's sewer

(Newser) - It was longer than two football fields, weighed as much as nearly a dozen double-decker buses , and took nine weeks to annihilate—but the London fatberg is officially no more. "Our work is finished, and the beast finally defeated after a mammoth effort from the team," says Alex...

Baltimore Stops Scraping Its Fatberg, Just Blasts It

City using high-pressure nozzle to get rid of the thing

(Newser) - "If we have to, we'll use our cutter, but the nozzle is working so far." That's the assessment on how the battle goes against Baltimore's somewhat infamous fatberg , discovered in September and now on the road to elimination. The Baltimore Sun reports that after first...

They Found $2M in Gold ... in Sewage

And that's just the annual amount discarded in Switzerland

(Newser) - There's more than cash going down the drain in Switzerland. About $2 million in gold and $1.8 million in silver ends up in Switzerland's sewers each year, according to an environmental study commissioned by the Swiss government. Strange as it sounds, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute...

Now Baltimore Has Its Own 'Fatberg'
Now Baltimore Has
Its Own 'Fatberg'
in case you missed it
Sep 30, 2017 9:44 AM CDT

Now Baltimore Has Its Own 'Fatberg'

Congealed fat, grease, and wet wipes nearly blocking 2-foot-wide pipe

(Newser) - Not content to let those tea-sippers across the pond hog the spotlight, Baltimore just announced its very own "fatberg." CBS Baltimore reports the "congealed lump of fat" was found between Baltimore Penn Station and the 1700 block of Charles Street. The fatberg is comprised of fats, oils,...

Museum Wants to Display Glob of Congealed Grossness

We are speaking, of course, of the fatberg

(Newser) - Congealed wet wipes, diapers, fat, and oil—not exactly what you'd expect to see behind glass at the Museum of London. But if the museum has its way, that's what will come to pass. The city is in the midst of a three-week "sewer war" against a...

London Officials Battling 'Total Monster' in Sewer

A 143-ton 'fatberg' isn't proving easy to deconstruct

(Newser) - British engineers say they've launched a "sewer war" against a giant blob clogging London's sewers, reports the AP . Thames Water officials said Tuesday it will likely take three weeks to dissolve the outsize "fatberg." They caution against expecting quick results as the fatberg is 275...

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