WET News

2 WET NEWS OCTOBER 2014 COMMENT "I wonder if Balfour Beatty's board feels it might have acted too hastily..." NEWS+ OCTOBER 20 Implementing factory thinking, lean engineering and collaborative planning helped Costain and MWH reduce the time needed to refurbish 21 rapid gravity „ lters at Strensham WTW from 40 to 20 days. "There's going to be huge draw on skilled people at all levels, not just engineers, in terms of designing the solutions and building them..." Thomas Faulkner, MD, Skanska UK, civil engineering Kier reported an underlying pre-tax pro„ t of £73.1M for the year to June 2014, an increase of 54% over the previous 12 months. Revenue was up 51% to £3B. 54% 51% IN A NUTSHELL "Water is too preci- ous and scarce to use just once – Mike MacPhee on break- throughs in water reuse" @arcadisglobal £296M The amount Arcadis has bid for Hyder Consulting. The o– er led to rival bidder engineering group Nippon Koei throwing in the towel, and withdrawing its o– er for Hyder. £5.5B How much the US market to treat wastewater from shale gas drilling will be worth by 2020. "This [receiving the Development Consent Order] is an important milestone for the project and marks six and a half years of hard work and collaboration for the entire team" Jim Otta, programme director of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, CH2M Hill "Open innovation is a concept that we are committed to and believe our sta– to be a great, untapped source of innovation" Steve Kaye, head of innovation, Anglian Water, who hopes employees will embrace a new Think Space social media platform. 80% The increase in renewable energy being generated by Yorkshire Water following upgrades at Esholt and Blackburn Meadows. I t's only been a couple of months since Balfour Beatty and Carillion con rmed they were in talks over a potential £3B merger. The two companies never even got engaged as Balfour Beatty quickly got in a hu• over Carillion wanting to retain Parsons Brinckerho• . Two months on, and as WET News went to press, Balfour Beatty is back in the headlines, this time for announcing a pro t warning – its - h since 2012, according to the Financial Times. The group's Construc- tion Services UK operation expects to make a £75M pro t shortfall, mainly due to 'problem contracts' in London. To help remedy the situation, Balfour Beatty has recruited the services of KPMG to carry out a detailed inde- pendent review of the Construc- tion Services UK operation. The review will focus on commercial controls on 'cost to complete', and contract value forecasting and reporting at project level. KPMG will report back to Balfour Beatty's board by the end of this year. Balfour Beatty maintains its ongoing priorities include the sale of Parsons Brinckerho• as well as recruiting a new chief executive. The group says its close to nalising both of those. And now executive chair- man Steve Marshall has indicated his intention to step down from the board once the new CEO is in place. I wonder if Balfour Beatty's board feels it might have acted a bit too hastily when it showed Carillion the door. It will have to wait until January 2015 at least before Carillion can come calling again. Will 'super sewer' impact in more ways than one? Congratulations to Thames Water and the Tideway Tunnel team, now that the £4.2B 'super sewer' has been given planning consent. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about the decision – namely Southwark Council as well as Hammersmith and Fulham Council, who are both concerned over the impact construction of the tunnel will have on residents for years. I'm sure that the impact will be kept to a minimum as far as possible. In fact, Southwark admits it has already secured a ra- of measures, including increased noise protection and no night-time barge movements. The right fracking deci- sion must be made To frack or not to frack, that is the question. I have to admit I'm getting confused over the issues of the fracking process used in drilling for shale gas. One side says it is the actual fracking process that can potentially contaminate aquifers. Now, US researchers say it's not down to fracking but the materials used for lining the boreholes. All I do know is that the right decision needs to be made – to prevent any chance of drinking water contamination. And don't forget the lucrative market that's awaiting for treating wastewater from shale gas drilling. Pure air, we care. Aware of tomorrow www.pureairsolutions.nl C ontaminated water from shale gas is likely to be caused by faulty wells rather than the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), researchers in the US have revealed. In aŸ study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, the researchers highlighted seven cases in Pennsylvania and one in Texas where meth- ane and other hydrocarbon gases had contaminated water wells. The researchers said there was no evidence that fractured shale resulted in contamination. Instead, the researchers believed that either the cement that sealed the outside of the vertical wells or the steel tubing that lines the them was at fault, causing the gas to leak into aquifers. The researchers used noble gases to trace the path of methane as the inert chemi- cals are not a• ected by micro- bial activity or oxidation, ¡ Report suggests cement lining could leak to contaminated water wells during shale gas exploration. Fracking not to blame for water contamination, say researchers enabling them to accurately determine the distance to the likely source. There are environmental concerns that the fracking pro- cess could cause contamina- tion of the drinking water aquifers that overlie shale gas reserves by allowing gases such as methane to permeate into drinking water sources from rocks where it was previ- ously con ned. Contamination could also be caused by chemicals used in the fracking process enter- ing drinking water aquifers through fractures caused by the process or, potentially, by poor handling of wastewater on the surface. A study by Researching Fracking in Europe (ReFINE), backed by the British Geologi- cal Survey and published ear- lier this year,Ÿ also found that fracking was not to blame for shale gas leaks. According to the study, out of 143 wells that were in use in the UK in 2000 one had leaked. REALITY CHECK ¡ A study by engineering consultancy Amec has warned of the strain on UK wastewater- handling facilities caused by fracking ¡ Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into rocks at high pressure to extract gas ¡ The main issue with fracking is that the process could cause contamination of the drinking water aquifers that overlie shale gas reserves by allowing gases such as methane to permeate into drinking water sources ¡ In the US, exploration and production companies have been under pressure to reduce the amount of freshwater used in dry areas like Texas ¡ The US market to treat wastewater from shale-gas drilling will grow by 28% annually, taking it to £5.5B by 2020

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