WET News

2 WET NEWS JULY 015 COMMENT "There's a lucrative business to be had for disposing of the wastewater" JULY 3 House of Fraser is switching water supplier for three English city centre outlets. Business Stream has agreed a two-year deal for the Oxford Street, Birmingham and Manchester stores. Jim Arnold has been promoted to chief operating officer at Morrison US. He joined the company in 1988 as an area manager, before becoming a director in 2000, executive director in 2009 and group board director two years ago. A CranŽ eld University study reveals that blockages in areas with 200+ trees per square kilometre of sewer are 30% higher than areas with less than 150 trees. Blockages with a prevailing proportion of trees from 3-7m in height are nearly 40% higher than for areas with trees taller than 12m. Bigger trees had less impact than medium-sized ones, and foul sewers are more prone to intrusion. 30% 40% £250K Thames Water's £250,000 Ž ne for polluting a stream near Newbury was upheld by a Court of Appeal. The appeal judge said Thames' Ž ne could have been "signiŽ cantly into seven Ž gures" if it were not for its prompt guilty plea and mitigating factors. 65m The Thames Tideway Tunnel will run up to 65m below the River Thames when construction is completed "This merger [between GHD and GHA Livigunn] provides the critical mass to realise our strategic vision to expand our UK capabilities and geographical spread" John Dutton, GHD UK director "The target is to get all 16 cells process commissioned by the end of July" Andy Fielding, GCA JV, as process commissioning starts on the £200M extension to United Utilities' Liverpool WwTW £2bn Balfour Beatty has declined to comment on reports that Chinese contractor China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) is exploring a £2bn bid for the group. CCECC has 'sounded out industry Ž gures' about the feasibility of a bid for Balfour Beatty. A ttending the latest BIM- 4Water meeting I came away with the feeling of 'Oh my God' as I realised that business modelling informa- tion is not just about 3D imag- ing wizardry on the computer. No, it's about data – and lots of it. Intelligent and structured data for every aspect of an asset's entire life cycle. There's no doubt that the in-depth knowledge that this tool provides is invaluable, not just for build and design work but asset management as well. It encourages a collabora- tive way of working. Level 2 BIM is deˆ ned as "ˆ le based collaboration and library management". BIM is about a new way of working. Companies will need to invest in it, not just in ˆ nancial terms but in under- standing the process and training staŒ . Whilst there is no mandate for the water sector in England and Wales to adopt BIM some water companies are insisting on its use for projects. As a result it is vital for contractors, large or small, to get to grips with BIM. If they don't... Well, that doesn't bear thinking about. Let contractors get on with the job If media reports are correct the powers that be are having a di' cult time in deciding between two groups for the job of Infrastructure Provider (IP) on the controversial £4.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel project (see front page). The procurement process has been delayed for a month, with the two bidding groups competing on how much of the cost will be passed on to Thames Water customers. The Infrastructure Provider will ˆ nance and build the tunnel, which will tackle the problem of over– ows from London's sewers as well as protect the River Thames from increasing pollution. The delay also means that the £1.6bn worth of construction contracts for the tunnel are also delayed. I don't know about you, but I feel like it has taken years for the procurement process to have gotten this far. The successful construction bidders are raring to go, so let them get on with the job. Fracking hell It has been good news and bad news for Cuadrilla in the past few weeks as it has tried to get approval to carry out shale gas exploration at two sites in the North-west (see p4). Lancashire County Council provided a glimmer of hope as it recom- mended that its Development Control Committee grant one of the two applications. The committee has since refused one of the applications, and, at the time of WET News going to press, had failed to make a decision on the second one. Shale gas exploration uses the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. There are concerns that the process will contaminate drinking water aquifers. But equally there's a lucrative business to be had for disposing of the wastewater. concrete steel clean water civil engineering waste water Leaking pipes pose contaminant risk C ontaminants that are potentially harmful can ˆ nd their way into the drinking water supply as a result of leaking water pipes, a new study by engineers at the University of She' eld has revealed. Until now, it had been assumed that only clean water from the leak would be sucked in, and that any contaminants would be ejected once pressure returned to normal. The pressure in mains water pipes usually forces water out through leaks, preventing anything else from getting in. But when there is a signiˆ cant pressure drop in a damaged section of pipe, water surrounding the pipe can be sucked in through the hole. The new study has shown that groundwater from around the pipe, which oŸ en contains harmful contaminants, can be sucked in, remain in the pipe and travel on through the network. Dynamic pressure drops happen whenever there is a sudden change in velocity, such as valve or pump failures, or sudden demands on the system, for instance when large volumes of water are required for ˆ ghting a ˆ re. As a result of engaging with the University of She' eld research, UK water companies are now training their ˆ eld staŒ to limit these pressure drops taking place. Professor Joby Boxall said: "Previous studies have shown that material around water pipes contains harmful contaminants, including viruses and bacteria from faeces, so anything sucked into the network through a leak is going to include things we don't want to be drinking." Boxall continued: "Many of us will have had a dodgy tummy in the past that we couldn't quite explain, oŸ en putting it down to something we'd eaten. It now seems possible that some of these illnesses could have been caused not by food, but by water." The University of She' eld research, which is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, used a purpose-built test facility made up of 141m of mains water pipe maintained at pressures ¤ Research by She¨ eld University reveals groundwater can be sucked into damaged pipes and travel through the network. REALITY CHECK It is not feasible for the water industry to stop all leaks The water industry is focusing on preventing the pressure change Microorganisms that enter the network through leaking pipes could attach to the pipe's inner surface and multiply Material around water pipes contains harmful contaminants, including viruses and bacteria from faeces representative of UK networks. A section of pipe was damaged, and the leak enclosed by a box containing gravel into which dye was injected to simulate a contaminant. When that section was subjected to a dynamic pressure drop, up to 60ml of the coloured water was sucked into the pipe. The project team was able to measure the dye at the end of the pipeline, 70m downstream, proving that the contaminant remained in and was transported through the network.

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