Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | november 2014 | 5 Polluters pay SW Water fined for St Ives sewage South West Water has been fined £49,000 a er a pump failure at Porth- gwidden Sewage Pumping Station led to the discharge of raw sewage into the sea at St Ives Bay, Cornwall. Last month at Truro magistrates Court, the water company pleaded guilty to a charge brought by the Environment Agency in relation to the incident in July 2013. In admitting the charge, South West Water said it was the first problem it had experienced with the pumping station since it was built in 1955, and that it had since invested in additional equip- ment and processes at the site. UU penalised for burst water main response United Utilities has been fined £33,000 by Burnley Magistrates' Court a er a water main burst and discharged silt into a river in Burnley. The Environment Agency said that UU's response to the incident in October 2012, which discol- oured Green Brook, a tributary of the River Calder, had not been adequate. UU admitted the charge and shortcom- ings in its communication with the EA, although the company stressed that it had repaired the burst main as quickly as it could and that there was no evi- dence of damage to the environment. Stockport firm fined for fat blockage in sewer Edible oil refiner Jarmac has been ordered to pay just over £14,000 for pouring away fats that blocked a United Utilities (UU) sewer and caused flood- ing in Stockport. In December 2012, Jarmac had an uncontrolled release of pork rind fat into the sewer that caused a sewer blockage. The court heard how the blockage was only discovered a er fat and sewage came up through the pavement into Gordon Street, Stock- port. UU prosecuted a er its staff car- ried out investigations. Jarmac, which refines oils for the soap and leather industry, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Water Industry Act 1991. Competition reforms 'must not stop water companies talking to businesses' Defra calls for CSO monitoring by 2020 Defra has published a letter urging UK water and sewer- age companies to introduce monitoring for the "vast ma- jority" of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) by 2020. The letter, to water and sewerage chief executives, was written last year by then water minister Richard Be- nyon but has been published now under the Environmen- tal Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs). In the letter, Benyon out- lined concerns that discharg- es from CSOs "are becoming a reputational issue... not Reforms to inject competi- tion into the English water industry risk affecting the productive dialogue that water companies currently have with businesses over the environmental impact of their water use, delegates at the Sustainable Water 2014 conference heard. Andy Brown, Head of Sus- tainability at Anglian Water, used his presentation at the conference in Birmingham to explore the changing role that a water company plays in landscape management. He said that it is vital for wa- ter companies to understand the water needs of big busi- nesses in their region where they have an impact on the water landscape, and that Anglian already had a regu- lar dialogue with firms such as PepsiCo and British Sugar about their requirements. However, he questioned whether the reforms coming in 2017 following the Water Act – which will split the wholesale and retail func- tions for business customers – would allow them to con- VOX POP "Throughout my working life, I have been convinced of the effectiveness of achieving one's aims by working together. That is why I decided to make Working Together in Partnership the theme of my presidency." Dr Norman Lowe, new president of CIWEM "I would agree with many customers and communities that a water company understanding where its CSO assets are and how they are performing is a basic element of sound sewerage management." Richard Benyon MP, former water minister (see story p5) "I think of the industry as a football match: the energy and creativity comes from the players on the ground, and the suits sitting in the stands are there to give them governance and control." Professor Tony Conway, Strategic Programmes Director, United Utilities dissimilar to leakage from supply a few years ago". He wrote: "They [CSOs] will con- tinue to represent a legitimate safety valve when systems become overwhelmed by ex- ceptional circumstances". Benyon acknowledged that the industry had done a lot and made considerable investment to improve the performance of CSOs but said their management and oper- ation was a "basic element of sewerage management" and that "looking forward, more needs to be done." With pressure on CSOs likely to increase, monitoring the level of discharges was crucial for compliance with legislation, he added. tinue this role. "2017 is a date that should make us all sit up and think," Brown told the conference. "When the retail and wholesale split takes place, what are the limits of our role as wholesaler? As a wholesaler what will be our interaction with PepsiCo for example - will their influ- ence on water use in potato farming in our region feed into the overall understand- ing of the need for water in a catchment?" He cited the example of British Sugar, which had re- cently been in discussions with Anglian about their role in water management in the landscape. They have learnt that changes in the sugar market may lead them to start irrigation on their sugar beet crop in 2017. He said that such a devel- opment would not have been "on their radar" if they did not have direct communica- tions with the firm. Read more at wwtonline. co.uk

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