Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | march 2015 | 5 Polluters pay Wolverhampton firm fined for sewer discharges a Wolverhampton firm has been fined for making illegal discharges into the sewer network, after a pros- ecution brought by Severn Trent. architectural aluminium coatings Limited of Steel Parkway, Wednes- field, was fined £3,250 and costs of £5,091 at Wolverhampton magis- trates court, following a prosecution brought for breaches of the Water Industry act 1991. The firm was penalised for breaching discharge limits on zinc and chromium on three occasions between august 2013 and September 2014. NI Water fined for Dromore discharge a polluting discharge from Dromore Wastewater Treatment Works has led to a £1,500 fine for Northern Ireland Water at Belfast magistrates court. a Senior Water Quality Inspector acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment agency carried out a routine inspection on January 9th of the outlet from Dromore Wastewater Treatment Works and observed an active discharge of sewage from the storm pipe into the river Lagan. Scottish Water in court over fish deaths Scottish Water is facing charges over an incident that led to the deaths of almost 5,000 fish in the River Farg last may. The utility is alleged to have discharged the chemical aluminium sulphate into the watercourse, which is a tributary of both the river Earn and the river Tay, on may 13th and 14th. The discharge was linked to controlled activity carried out at the Glenfarg Water Treatment Works, according to papers at Perth Sheriff court. The case was set to be heard on February 17th as WWT went to press. Price review 'will be a catalyst for innovation' Shortlists announced for water awards The shortlist has now been published for the Water In- dustry Achievement Awards 2015, the industry's most prestigious awards night or- ganised by WWT and its sister title WET News. The judges have now made their difficult decisions and the winners' names will remain under lock and key until April 21 when all will be revealed at the awards ceremony and gala dinner at the Hilton Birmingham Metro- pole. Yet again we were inun- The recently concluded price review will act as a catalyst for innovation in the water industry by sharp- ening the focus on customer outcomes, according to So- nia Brown, Chief Regulation Officer at Ofwat. Addressing the Water Industry Innovation Confer- ence in Birmingham, organ- ised by WWT on January 28, Brown said that innovation should flow from customer engagement and not be a "one-off driven by the regu- lator" but the result of a con- tinual process of dialogue. She said that Ofwat were encouraged by how water companies had stepped up to the challenge of engag- ing more with their custom- ers, and that she expected this dialogue to bear fruit in terms of innovative solu- tions in the coming years. "The more that the cus- tomer is embedded within the culture of the water sec- tor the more you will end up with innovation that is answering customer needs," said Brown. "This will mean that we will see different VOX POP "Businesses in the real world don't have different incentive pots for Totex and Capex." Sonia Brown, Ofwat (see story, le ) "Now is the right time to confirm my plans – this gives the board time to find Water UK a new leader." Pamela Taylor, chief exec of Water UK, who is stepping down at the end of the year "The challenge of innovation is always there – it doesn't work on five year cycles." Martin Cave, Visiting Professor, Imperial College Business School dated with entries and the quality was outstandingly high, ensuring that our judges had to make some very tough decisions in selecting their winners in each category. The awards celebrate and reward outstanding innova- tion in the UK water indus- try, and are sponsored by water regulator Ofwat and water experts Imtech Wa- ter, Waste & Energy, As- set International, TES, NM Group, CPSA, Saint-Gobain PAM, Doosan, Sykes Pumps, Selwood, Teekay, and Talis. For information and to book your place at the awards, visit www.waterindustryachieve mentawards.info types of innovation coming to the fore." The removal of the "Capex bias" in PR14 in fa- vour of an emphasis on To- tex will be a key enabler for this change. She pointed to the experience of National Grid in the energy sector as evidence that thinking in terms of Totex helps a utility to direct its investment in a smarter, more efficient way. Brown said that it was very important in this shiœ that there was a "balance between risk and reward" for water companies, and that innovation was ad- equately rewarded. For this reason, the introduction of customer-focused outcome delivery incentives (ODIs) is crucial. Brown said that more water companies are now challenged through their ODIs to find answers to specific challenges – such as sewer flooding – and that these ODIs provided "real scope for outperformance". Sonia Brown is speaking at Utility Week Live, 21-23 april in Birmingham. For info/booking visit www.utilityweeklive.co.uk

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