Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1169034
Celtic Anglian Water, the water solutions company providing treatment services across Ireland, has signalled its growth plans with the appointment of Darren O'Reilly (pictured) as industrial business development manager and Elizabeth Cohalan as manager of the new mobile engineering services team. Interserve has appointed Alan Lovell as chairman. His executive career includes periods working across the construction and energy sectors, at Tamar Energy, Infinis, Jarvis and Costain Group, and four years as national chair of the Consumer Council for Water. He succeeds Glyn Barker, who led the company from March 2016. Business Stream has appointed Douglas McLaren as chief operating officer. McLaren has over 15 years' experience in the retail utility sector and a breadth of operational, commercial and financial experience. He will oversee customer service, operations, people and development, IT and the company's change programme. The Talk: October ROUND UP PEOPLE MOVES 4 | OCTOBER 2019 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Water companies in England have announced plans to plant 11 million trees as part of a wider commitment to improve the natural environment and achieve their goal of a carbon-neutral water industry by 2030. The joint proposals will see trees planted on around 6,000 hectares of land across England together with work to restore original woodland and improve natural habitats that themselves provide carbon capture. Four warned over rise in complaints The Consumer Council for Water has demanded urgent improvement from Thames Water, Northumbrian Water, Essex & Suffolk Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy after they saw a sharp rise in complaints from customers. All four have been asked to provide quarterly reports highlighting what action they have already taken and what else they plan to do to reduce complaints. CCWater chief executive Tony Smith said: "In the autumn, we'll be bringing the whole industry together to try and improve the standards of billing, as well as demanding a significant fall in the complaints made to the four poor performers named in our report." Bournemouth Water, Southern Water, SES Water and Bristol Water all made improvements, while Anglian Water remains the best performing water and sewerage company for calls to resolve problems. South East Water, South Staffs Water, Hartlepool Water and Wessex Water also earned praise. Yorkshire Water eliminates use of chlorine gas Yorkshire Water has eliminated all ageing chlorine and sulphur dioxide gas use from its water treatment works in a bid remove any risk of toxic gas escapes. The £14 million project has taken two years to complete and involved replacement of dosing systems at 10 of its water treatment works. The decision was taken on health and safety grounds to eradicate the risk of a worst-case scenario major toxic gas leak. Northumbrian gel may stop tree root ingress in pipes Northumbrian Water is working with Durham University and Intelligent Gels to help prevent tree roots from damaging the sewer network. The three organisations have been working together to create a gel that uses an eco-friendly copper formulation to form a protective barrier and anti-root invasion solution. It would be applied to the inside of existing sewer pipes and coated on new pipes laid in the future to stop tree roots growing any further without killing the tree. TOP OF THE TREE