Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | APRIL 2015 | 5 Polluters pay UU hit with £750K fine over Millom pump failure United Utilities has received a £750,000 fine for a pump breakdown which allowed wastewater to enter the Duddon Estuary at Millom in Cumbria. The company admitted three breaches of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 in relation to the incident at a pumping station in King Street, Millom, during a weekend in mid May 2013. At the time of the pump breakdown, a second pump was away for repair and an alarm failed to alert engineers to the issue. South West Water fined £40K for Devon sewage South West Water has been ordered to pay over £40,000 in fines and costs for polluting a Devon watercourse with sewage in August 2013. Exeter Crown Court heard that a combination of plant breakdown, telemetry failures and poor management was responsible for Woodbury's Polly Brook becoming contaminated with poor quality sewage, which subsequently led to the death of a number of fish. Thames Water fined £220K for Surrey river pollution Thames Water has been fined £220,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,500 at Guildford Crown Court for polluting the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Lodden in Surrey. The company pleaded guilty to breaching its environmental permit and causing pollution to an environmentally sensitive site in September 2012, when effluent escaping from a sewage treatment works in Camberley killed a significant number of fish in Shepherds Meadow Nature Reserve, a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). Water companies to be made statutory consultees on fracking planning decisions Anglian Water confirms final alliance partners for AMP6 Clancy Docwra, Claret Civil Engineering, Danaher & Walsh and Public Sewer Services have all signed contracts, worth over £200M over the next 15 years, to become the final members of Anglian Water's Integrated Maintenance and Repair (IMR) alliance. The companies, which achieved preferred bidder status late last year, signed the contracts this month, and will be responsible for the firm's water recycling infrastructure maintenance work – around 7,500 jobs every year. In total five companies The Government has confirmed that water companies will be made statutory consultees on planning applications relating to shale oil and gas exploration. Water UK had been among those pressing for the change in response to concerns about the effect of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on groundwater and the level of water use involved in the process. The Department for Communities and Local Government had consulted on the proposal, and in its response to its consultation confirmed that the requirement for water company consultation would be made law. "The Government recognises the strong support for making water companies statutory consultees in respect to shale oil and gas development," the VOX POP "Water companies need to look at Totex from a wider, business- centric point of view, where every pound spent towards an outcome should count equally." Greg Bradley, Partner, EC Harris "We can invest as much as we like in our treatment works, but if we don't deal with diffuse pollution then the Water Framework Directive target will never be met." David Elliott, Wessex Water (see story, le ) "The water industry retains people much better than other industries. I think that's because once you are in, it's very much seen as a big family." Lynn Cooper, chief executive, Institute of Water (see p 11) make up the firm's IMR alliance, one of four alliances that Anglian Water has now established to deliver its business plan for AMP6 and beyond. The IMR alliance is divided into two specialist areas, covering water and water recycling work. The four companies have now joined Clancy Docwra and Kier MG which signed contracts in November to carry out the water infrastructure maintenance work. Last year, the company confirmed its partners for its Integrated Main Works Capital (IMWC) which will retain the '@one Alliance' brand, Integrated Metering and Developer Services (IMDS) and Integrated Operational Solutions (IOS) alliances for AMP6. consultation response reads. "The Government intends to focus the requirement to consult water companies on proposals involving hydraulic fracturing given the level of water usage linked to shale oil and gas development. We will keep this under review." The requirement to consult the relevant water and sewerage company before planning consent would be included in the Infrastructure Bill, it was confirmed. A vast majority (98%) of respondents to the consultation agreed with the move. In the same paper, the DCLG confirmed that Lead Local Flood Authorities would be made statutory consultees on planning applications for major developments relating to surface water drainage.

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