The £4.2 billion super sewer had its planning permission approved by government despite objections raised by Hammersmith and Fulham council.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council claims that inadequate consultation over plans of an excavation site on the riverbank at Fulham would make residents suffer from an “avoidable misery” and “24/7 noise, dust and air pollution”.
Thames Water had originally planned using the Richmond site, on open fields at Barn Elms, near the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust nature reserve at Barnes for its tunnelling work to take place.
After a period of consultation, Thames switched the proposed tunnelling site to a brownfield site by Carnwath Road in Fulham because initial consultation responses urged it to “avoid greenfield sites, where possible, and use the river more for transporting materials”.
Despite this, Hammersmith and Fulham council remained opposed to the plan and has threatened a legal challenge to the super sewer plans.
In a letter to the environment secretary, councillor Wesley Harcourt, the cabinet member for the environment, said: “The devastating sewer proposals would see south Fulham homes blighted, roads congested and school children and vulnerable residents all at risk from noxious fumes.”
The Thames Tideway Tunnel project has been designed to run 25km along the River Thames between Acton and Abbey Mills and intercept 34 combined sewer overflows.
It will divert their surface water and sewage discharge to a wastewater treatment facility rather than allowing it to discharge directly into the river.
A failure to tackle the sewage overflow into Thames after periods of heavy or intense rainfall would leave UK facing EU fines of up to £100 million a year.
Phil Stride, head of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, said: “The Thames Tideway Tunnel will not only solve the current problem of the river being treated like a toilet, but it will make London’s sewer network fit for the 22nd century.”
To help fund the construction of the super sewer, Thames Water has said that consumer water bills would increase by about £80 a year.