"anton" wrote in message
...

Nick Maclaren wrote in message ...
In article ,
James Collings wrote:
During the floods of last week, Thames water sewage plants couldn't
cope...and the backlog of untreated sewage filled the pipes, until it
burst
up and out of the drains... right into our back garden.

The result was 3 days of 6in deep sewage filled water covering a large
expanse of lawn and patio. Luckily none got in the house, but it is the
garden that I am concerned about.

After 3 days, the residue of sewage remained (the water soaked away),
and
1
week later I am stil waiting for the "professional" clean-up of this
toxic
stuff.

Question: Will the sewage adversely affect the lawn, or the Apple tree
(eaters), or the large clematis that it soaked? If this is not a bad
thing... will the "clean-up" with powerful detergents do more harm than
good?

If it is domestic sewage, and you don't use too many of the most toxic
household chemicals, then it will do little harm. Effectively, it will
break down as the weather warms up and be a general fertilisation. You
may well get localised damage from burning and smothering, but probably
no more.

Mmm. I can't say I'd fancy any salads or strawberries
off that ground for a year or two.

Why not, would you refuse to eat any of those things following an
application of horse manure?

Toxic maybe isn' the word I'd use, but aren't there a variety of parasites
&
diseases present in raw sewage?

But when it dries out it will no longer be 'raw sewage'.

Alan
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