Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/515382
4 | JUNE 2015 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry news June The benefits of catchment management are clear but governance is one of the key barriers to be overcome before it can be implemented effectively across the country, delegates heard at Utility Week Live in Birmingham last month. Independent consultant David Baxter, formerly of the Environment Agency, told the audience in the conference's water theatre that £100BN of spending was needed over 15 years to comply with the Water Framework Directive. Catchment-based solutions make sense for water companies as they can play a crucial part in meeting customer outcomes and embody a Totex-friendly approach. However, Baxter added: "Strategic solutions might in theory be fairly obvious, but they don't always get done. Saying catchment management is the answer is like saying that the key to good health is losing weight Catchment management held back by governance question Contract Tracker L&ME wins UU Blackpool outfall contract J Murphy & Sons subsidiary Land and Marine Engineering has been contracted by United Utilities (UU) to design, build and commission works in connection with the replacement of Harrowside Outfall in Blackpool. The project, which is part of UU's £100M investment to improve the sewer network along the Fylde Coast, will see the existing wastewater pipe replaced with a plastic one and its length extended 1.2km out into the sea. Celtic to carry out Davyhulme enabling works Celtic EnGlobe has been awarded the Davyhulme enabling works package by LORI, the Laing O'Rourke and Imtech joint venture. The deal is worth £5.5M, and is the first step in a major upgrade of United Utilities' Davyhulme Wastewater Treatment Works to enable new treatment water infrastructure to be constructed. The work includes 430,000 tonnes of earthworks, 100,000 tonnes of soil treatment and placement of 65,000 m 2 of piling mats. AECOM joins Wessex AMP6 framework AECOM has become a partner on Wessex Water's new design capital delivery framework for AMP6. The initial five-year contract, which has already started, has the potential to be extended by a further five years to cover all or part of AMP7. and giving up smoking. It sounds simple but there is much more to it than that. Sometimes it needs a crisis to trigger change. A crisis is not yet upon us, but it might not be far away." He said that governance was one of the key barriers to catchment management. Water companies oŽen feel they need extra reward to take a lead on catchment solutions because of the extra risk involved, yet struggle to win extra funding from Ofwat. Furthermore it is not always clear who should pay for catchment-based initiatives; money spent from different sources is not properly co- ordinated; and it is difficult to measure the direct benefits of any particular expenditure. He said one answer could be the model used in Holland, where 'water boards' are formed of all stakeholders with an interest in the catchment. Decisions on action and expenditure to tackle pollution are shared, with the proportion of power an organisation holds depending on the level of its interest in the catchment. Susan Davy, Group Finance Director at Pennon Group, the owner of South West Water, told delegates that the utility's AMP5 work included £10.8M of work on third party land, with interventions including blocking up troublesome drainage ditches on Exmoor, fencing to prevent animals straying into watercourses, and grants to farmers to improve existing assets. She said that it made financial sense for the water customer to foot this bill because of the cost this avoided elsewhere. "Either we have early intervention in the catchment or we end up investing in assets downstream to cope with it. By having these interventions customers end up paying less," she said. £50.8M The amount Severn Trent has received for the sale of its water purification business to Italian joint venture partner Industrie de Nora. The business, valued at £62M by the deal, provides disinfection and filtration technology solutions for the global onshore and offshore energy, marine and municipal markets. FULL STEAM AHEAD: WRc held its 4th annual Innovation Event in the exciting surroundings of STEAM Museum in Swindon, with a "Best of the Best" Awards Ceremony which pitted 11 previous Innovation award winners against each other, with guests interactively voting for the winner. Synthotech won with their Tier One Replacement System (TORS) for gas mains, while Wessex Water were second and Business Modelling Associates third.