Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | augusT 2014 | 13 With no mains water, Wyke Farms relies on borehole extraction for its supply. In periods of dry weather mains water had to be tankered in. The new recovery plant ensures self-sufficiency when it comes to water, and guar- antees business continuity, whatever the weather T he cost and supply of water is a critical threat to many business, particularly manufacturers. Wyke Farms, a producer of around 14,000 tonnes of cheese a year for virtually all of the major supermarkets, knows this better than most. In fact, calculations show that around 1 litre of process water is required to produce 1 litre of milk for use in its products. "We've been worried about water for a number of years," states Rich Clothier, the company's managing director. "We draw our water from boreholes, which reached critically low levels during the dry period in 2011-12. One borehole even started to bottom-out, which meant we were pulling up silt and sediment. With climate change experts predicting this will become increasingly common, we decided to consider the reuse of wastewater." Until recently, Wyke Farms ran an activated sludge plant to treat its wastewater, with a licence to discharge the final effluent into a tributary of the River Brue under an EA EPR permit. The plant comprised a primary treatment stage (divert system, silt and fat traps, balancing, and DAF with chemical floc- culation and pH correction) followed by secondary treatment featuring extended aeration activated sludge with clarifiers. Initially, a number of improvements were considered, including replacing the clarifiers and adding tertiary treat- ment in the form of continuous back- wash sand filters or reed beds. However, at the end of 2011 it was agreed that alternative options for upgrading the Project focus Industrial wastewater recovery plant Future-proofing the water supply ● £1.3 million investment ● 95% of factory wastewater recovered ● Future water consumption will reduce by 70% STEED WEBZELL FREELaNCE TECHNOLOgY WRITER

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