WET News

2 WET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014 COMMENT "The company is right. The safety of our water supply is paramount" NEWS+ SEPTEMBER £11B What the Construction Products Association is forecasting the construction industry will contribute to the UK economy over the next two years. Infrastruc- ture output will grow in all sectors, including water and sewerage. "In addition to the calibre of the company's professionals, Black & Veatch's structure attracted me to the role" Scott Aitken, Black & Veatch's new MD, European water business Morgan Sindall Group reports a £2.7B order book, 14% up on the ' gure for the 12 months to June 2013. Its pipeline of regeneration schemes has risen by 5% to £3.2B this year. 14% 5% IN A NUTSHELL "The UK provides 18,000 million litres of water every day to 58 million people" @wheelocks £268M The amount of money Japanese engineering consultant Nippon Koei UK Topco had bid for Hyder Consulting, gazumping an earlier bid by Arcardis. 28% How much the US market will grow by annually to treat wastewater from shale-gas drilling "This was an unusual job for us. Pipes like these in water treatment works rarely need cleaning in this way. The biggest challenge was the length of the pipes and the large amount of sludge they contained " Ian Clapham, Lanes Group "There are arguments for and against fracking, it is the role of the government to balance these, not Portsmouth Water" A statement from Portsmouth Water outlining its position on fracking for shale gas in its area 50% How much the number of category one and two water quality incidents rose by in 2013, said the EA. S o the Carillion / Balfour Beatty saga is over – for now. It ended with Caril- lion announcing it was not con- tinuing its pursuit a er Balfour Beatty rejected its third propos- al for a merger (see p3). The sticking point was the sale of Balfour Beatty consul- tancy Parsons Brinckerho- . Both Carillion and Balfour Beatty had initially agreed that a sale would continue. Balfour Beatty soon got in a hu- when Carillion changed its mind and wanted to keep the consultancy. A er that, nothing that Carillion threw into the mix could appease Balfour Beatty, so now they have gone their separate ways for the time being. Stock market rules dic- tate that Carillion is prohibited from trying again for six months. Plenty of time for Balfour Beatty to cool o- and Parsons Brinckerho- will most probably have been sold. But will Caril- lion still be interested? Portsmouth Water gets on its fracking high horse Fracking, the controversial method of choice for extracting shale gas, is back on the water industry's radar. Portsmouth Water has outlined its position on the subject a er an oil com- pany withdrew an application for exploratory boreholes in the Havant area (see p4). In a statement, the company said it is not a statutory con- sultee when it comes to fracking planning. Its responsibility is to ensure the provision of safe and high quality water. It is the role of the government to balance the arguments for and against fracking. The company is right, of course, in that the safety of our water supply should be paramount. Lucrative business However, there is the wastewa- ter generated from fracking that needs to be treated which could potentially be a lucrative business. The US market to treat waste- water from shale-gas drilling is expected to reach £5.5B by 2020, an annual growth rate of 28%. Seems like the industry needs some guidelines for the potable side and the wastewater aspect of its activities. Get those entries in Being innovative and forward thinking is a matter of course these days. The water companies require contractors and suppliers to come up with the best technologies that are out there. However, it should not just be about technologies. There needs to be forward thinking in other areas as well – health and safety, training, customer ser- vice, partnerships. For instance, some companies think that put- ting up 'Sorry for the inconven- ience' signs at streetworks is innovative. Really? Innovation is about the use of a better and novel idea. Doing something di- erent, rather than the same thing. So if your company is for- ward thinking and innovative, tell us about it and enter the Water Industry Achievement Awards (see front page). Best of luck! Pure air, we care. Aware of tomorrow www.pureairsolutions.nl O fwat has written to chief executives of some of the water companies ex- pressing increasing concern "over the quality of some of the information provided to us" in revised business plans submit- ted on June 27. The regulator said this raised questions about the assurance processes that they have undertaken. In the letter, dated July 30, Ofwat chief regulation o¡ cer Sonia Brown said: "We think this is of su¡ cient importance for us to publicly raise concerns in your dra determination to be published on 29 August. I wanted to tell you this now because we consider these to be important issues that you need to address but we recognise the period between dra determi- nations and the deadline for making representations on these (October 3) is tight." Brown said there were con- cerns over the information pro- vided in relation to the ¤ nance- ability of the companies' plans. "Through the query process we ¥ Water regulator Ofwat writes to water company bosses warning of more onerous regulatory reporting requirements. O at concerned over the quality of information in water rms' business plans have identi¤ ed substantive issues with the calculations underpinning your assessment of actual and/or notional ¤ nanceability.¦ These issues have had a signi¤ cant impact on the calculation of NEED TO KNOW South West Water and Až nity Water pre-quali' ed for 'enhanced' status back in March Ofwat has written to United Utilities, Thames Water and Bristol Water outlining a £1.3B di¡ erence between the companies' re-submitted plans for the next AMP period, and its own assessment of ež cient wholesale costs Final determinations will be issued in December 2014 Through the query process we have identi' ed substantive issues with the calculations underpinning your assessment of actual and/or notional ' nanceability ¤ nanceability ratios, which raises serious concerns over your board assurance of ¤ nanceability. "This reduces the weight that we can place on your assur- ance as a whole and makes interventions to the business plan more likely." She warned that failure to meet licence obligations and Ofwat's regulatory reporting requirements could ultimately lead a signi¤ cant ¤ nancial pen- alty being imposed. Brown said: "More immedi- ately, we need to be able to trust companies and be con¤ dent that they are managed in a way that ensures they will meet their obligations and deliver the outcomes that their customers want and are willing to pay for." She continued: "Consistent with a proportionate and risk based approach, we may put in place more onerous regulatory reporting requirements and/or a more onerous assurance regime from 2015-16 for compa- nies where concerns remain at Final Determination."

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