Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JUNE 2022 | 17 Water down the more traditional routes costs will go up – that's unavoidable. We're trying to find the best solution for everyone involved." Mills explains that the Defra consulta- tion costs presume traditional routes are followed, however this is not the approach companies are considering in the first instance. "We're trying to prove there's another route here, one that spreads costs among those responsible and has added benefits," Mills says, and adds that the deliv- ery route would be different too. "We won't go to civil contractors or consultants unless they prove they are doing things differently." The company is in conversation with councils about adding SUDS, which has itself opened up discussions about the com- plexity of the surface water and sewer over- flows challenge. Mills and McNab describe the perceptions many stakeholders have as being perpetu- ated by "misinformation" in the media that storm overflows are water company prob- lems alone. "We've been outspoken about how to address the issue whereas others have been quieter," Mills says. "As an industry we need to be bullish talking to people about CSOs; this is as big as the Urban Wastewater Direc- tive for the industry. That was so big it had to privatise the industry to pay for it and I don't think people are taking this seriously enough." Avoiding the blame game This sentiment was echoed by Robin Price, director of quality and environment at Anglian, who is cautious that blame will be unjustly apportioned. "We need to shout from the rooŒops that this is not the water companies' problems to solve alone, these are societal problems." He says Anglian welcomes the scrutiny and the conversations but the sector can- not solve this alone. "It is an opportunity to gather data to fuel these conversations that will make a big impact for society." Price describes the company's risk-based approach to CSOs based on data from its network of event duration monitors with spill frequency as one area feeding into the programme of action. The company has removed 300 of the highest risk CSOs and is using data to build its strategy going forward. As well as monitoring, the company is improving the capacity of its network to hold storm water back and prevent spills. "As an industry the thinking is moving on now, and recognising that installing storm tanks isn't the answer," Price says. "We need to be looking upstream in catchments for solutions. By pointing only at water com- panies, asking what we're doing about, it is essentially insinuating that the problem is down to us alone to solve. Like Southern, Anglian is exploring how SUDS can be most effectively deployed to manage flows. It ran a surface water manage- ment programme in Cambridgeshire town in March that showed 20% of properties' rainwater systems were misconnected to sewer pipes; 435 highway gullies were also directly connected to the pipes, and there were 24 hectares of impermeable areas such as roads, driveways and roofs that also feed into the sewage network. To address these points the sector needs to work with local authorities, communities and developers. "There's so much more to do before we start building concrete tanks on the banks of rivers," Price says. He adds that the company welcomes the scrutiny around overflows because it opens up the conversation to show it's a complex problem. "Yes it's also a complex answer, but we can only achieve this with working in partnerships. CSOs were designed for a pur- pose but now we need a 21st century answer." Price says there is not yet a tangible shiŒ in understanding or acceptance that the problem goes beyond water companies alone. "It's still fairly new, we need evidence and data before we can take that message out. At the moment it's perceived as a horrific thing associated with water company under- investment but it's not at all. These systems were installed decades ago to protect homes and businesses from the menace of sewer flooding, our job now is to find alternative ways of dealing with it by preventing sewers becoming overloaded in the first place." Anglian has joined forces with Severn Trent on the Get River Fit campaign that sets out joint pledges to improve water quality. James Jesic, managing director at Sev- ern Trent and director of Hafren Dyfrdwy, explains that some of these commitments include reducing the number of CSO opera- tions to 20 or fewer by the end of 2025 as well as working to eradicate reasons for not achieving good ecological state on rivers. Accomplishing this will involve increased monitoring of effluent quality from treatment works as well as from CSOs "Water firms have more to do but we are not the only cause," Jesic adds. "When I look at the work we do and the money we spend, I think there's a much greater opportunity to work with other stakeholders and form part- nerships to have a much bigger impact." As part of the river pledges, the com- pany announced a deal that looks at driving regenerative farming across the Midlands to improve catchment management, land man- agement, reduce phosphate and ammonia run-off that will take a much broader catch- ment view on river quality management. "We want to help drive the ecology of our natural environment," says Jesic. "We recog- nise the health of the natural environment is key to our business, it's key to the service we provide to our customers because the bet- ter the natural environment the better our product is and the less treatment we need to do, which means fewer chemicals and less energy required." This in turn will improve the ecology and natural habitats, something Severn Trent has heralded results from with the reintroduc- tion of otters and beavers. Credibility and trust The sector and Ofwat are united on the need for credibility and trust. Jesic says: "We rec- ognise as a company the best way to gain trust and regain credibility is just to be open. One of our river pledges therefore is to share our data: people can access and analyse data on our combined sewer overflow spills." He sees education related to the available data as an important part of the narrative for the whole industry – especially given the rise of citizen scientists, but the information must be accessible and understandable for all. Severn Trent's River Rangers are a key component to the company's education approach. They are establishing community relationships that will help with education as well as encouraging people to recognise what they can do such as home improve- ments that won't exacerbate flood risks. He says this will help people make informed decisions about their part in the water cycle. Addressing credibility was equally high on the agenda for Southern Water's new majority shareholder, Macquarie, when it acquired the company last year. Mills says one of the first questions Mac- quarie asked was about storm overflows. "They saw the writing on the wall and wanted Southern to get ahead." This transparency is a double-edged sword, Mills explains, because where South- ern is reporting more it appears that the company has more spills than other compa- nies. Given the media attention Southern has received in recent years, Mills recognises the company is under closer scrutiny than most: "Rightly so, our past is our past and it wasn't good enough. We let people down and the period we were prosecuted for will be refer- enced for the next ten years, so it's essential to be really transparent." Ruth Williams, water correspondent

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