Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | AUGUST 2014 | 5 Polluters pay £50k fi ne for Anglian Water Anglian Water has been fi ned £50,000 a er sewage contaminated a brook through an emergency overfl ow pipe killing more than 1,500 fi sh. All three pumps at Ingrave Pumping Station, near Brentwood, Essex had failed in the early hours of 10 April 2011 and sewage pol- luted more than four kilometers of the Haverings Grove Brook. Sewage spill costs Thames £170k A jammed penstock gate and failed bypass that blocked a sewer has cost Thames Water £169,045 for polluting the River Crane and the Duke of North- umberland's River in west London. Isle- worth Crown Court fi ned the company £75,000 and ordered it to pay £94,045 in costs following the incident, which took place in October 2011. Repeat off enders Wolverhampton magistrates have fi ned Global Metal Finishers £55,000 for mak- ing illegal discharges into Severn Trent Water's sewer network. The Wolver- hampton-based company was also ordered to pay costs of nearly £9,000. On 11 occasions between January 11 and October 22 last year, Global Metal Finishers breached legal limits for regulating the discharge of metals into the public sewer. The limits breached related to cyanide, chromium, copper, zinc and nickel. The fi rm was prosecuted in 2008 and 2011 for similar breaches. EC targets Portugal over wastewater The European Commission (EC) is taking Portugal to court for failing to ensure that wastewater from small towns, cities and settlements is properly treated, saying the lack of adequate collection and treatment systems poses risks to human health, in- land waters and the marine environment. Despite good progress since the EC sent a "reasoned opinion" to Portugal on this matter in 2009, the current signifi cant shortcomings have led it to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the Euro- pean Union. Aquifer mapping shows 'minimal' contamination risk from UK fracking AECOM acquires URS for $4B AECOM has announced a $4B (£2.3B) acquisition of URS Corporation. The deal, which creates a combined entity with about $19B a year in sales, is ex- pected to realise $250M in annual cost-saving syner- gies, nearly all of which AE- COM says will be achieved by the end of Š scal year 2016. Michael Burke, AECOM's chief executive, who will head the combined com- pany, said the deal created an industry leader with "un- New underground maps from the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Envi- ronment Agency (EA) show that while many shale gas deposits overlap with ma- jor water aquifers, fracking in the UK will pose a much lower risk to water supplies than it has in parts of North America. The series of maps pro- vide a new way to visualise geological data and assess the potential of fracking to contaminate drinking water with methane in England and Wales. They show the depth to each shale gas and oil source rock below princi- pal groundwater aquifers, which provide 30% of the UK's drinking water and up to 70% of the drinking water in South East England. The data shows almost all of the nation's recoverable shale and oil gas is at least 650 metres below ground- water layers, while some US operations have targeted shale gas just 100 metres from water sources. The EA requires fracking companies to hold ground- water permits unless there VOX POP: Thames Tideway costs "In my view it is essential if we are to stop pouring raw sewage into the river Thames 20 or more times a year. But it's very expensive and making a judgement about how it falls on the water rate payers is going to be a major issue." Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith "At a time when people across the capital are struggling with the rising cost of living, it is crucial that Thames Water customers are not treated as cash cows to entice investors... I am seriously worried there is no disincentive built in to cost overruns" London Mayor Boris Johnson* "Building the tunnel, will require increases of £8 above infl ation for each of the fi ve years from 2015" Thames Water ceo Martin Baggs in February 2014 surpassed capacity to deliver integrated solutions across AECOM's existing markets". He said: "We will have the ability to design and deliver major civil infrastructure projects in sectors such as transportation and water." Martin Koœ el, URS chair- man and chief executive, described the deal as "a compelling strategic com- bination" that it expected would make it better posi- tioned to compete for major, complex projects across a diverse range of end markets and geographic regions". Read more at wwtonline.co.uk is no signiŠ cant risk to groundwater. Developments will not be allowed to go ahead if they are too close to drinking water sources, and the EA will not permit the use of chemical addi- tives in hydraulic fracturing Ÿ uid that are hazardous to groundwater. BGS director of groundwa- ter science Dr Rob Ward believes fracking has been poorly regulated in the United States, whereas ad- equate precautions for UK work would mean there was 'minimal risk' of con- tamination. The EA's head of the air, land and water research team Dr Alwyn Hart agreed, saying: "We have strong regulatory controls in place to protect groundwater, and will not permit activity that threatens groundwater and drinking water supplies. These maps will help public understand- ing of the separation be- tween groundwater and po- tential shale gas sites." The maps are available on the British Geological Sur- vey website. Read more on fracking at wwtonline.co.uk * PIC: PCRUCIATTI/SHUTTERSTOCK

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