WET News

4 WET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2015 News+ CONTRACT WINS GOOD MONTH BAD MONTH For the protected Great Crested Newt - South East Water is using DNA testing to establish if the newts are near construction sites. Water has better public image than other utilities, according to a TALIS UK survey. Southern Water was found guilty by Chichester Crown Court of breaching environmental rules for pumping untreated sewage into the sea after three pumps failed at its East Worthing WwTW. Odour issues at Saltend WwTW lands Yorkshire Water with an abatement notice. Cryptosporidium bug could cost UU millions in compensation pay-outs • Utility faces a £15M-plus bill for contamination to water supply in Lancashire. UV treatment deployed to kill off bug. T he cryptosporidium con- tamination in Lancashire could cost United Utilities (UU) more than £15M in com- pensation claims, according to media reports. A boil water notice has been in place for more than 300,000 properties in Blackpool, Chorley, Fylde, Preston, South Ribble and Wyre as a precaution since traces of cryptosporidium were detected during routine tests at UU's Franklaw wastewater treatment works on August 5. According to the reports, UU paid out £15 per house to cus- tomers who had to boil their drinking water for five days recently as a result of supply problems in Bolton. It esti- mated that the pay-out for the cryptosporidium contamina- tion could be at least £45 per household. UU has emphasised that the boil water notice will remain in place until the system is com- pletely clear of the contamina- tion. The company has been flushing through 2,500 miles of pipes and storage reservoirs, and has also now deployed portable ultraviolet (UV) ray equipment to kill off the remaining cryptosporidium. The UV equipment will be located at sites on the Fylde coast to speed up the recovery process so water supplies can get back to normal. John Butcher, of United Cryptosporidium is a microscopic, protozoan parasite that can cause diarrhoea and stomach cramps UU issued the boil water notice as a precaution on August 5 An investigation is in place to establish the cause of the contamination A boil water notice in Bolton lasted five days following supply issues there due to a technical fault Cryptosporidium is 'particularly vulnerable' to UV treatment Innovate UK nding for 'tag and track' project • Skanska expects RFID tagging and tracking will accelerate uptake of BIM. S kanska has been awarded funding by innovation agen- cy Innovate UK towards a £1M project to research real-time 'tag and track' methods, which could significantly improve the efficiency of construction pro- grammes. The two-year research programme will look at methods of tagging different aspects of a construction project throughout its life, capturing data from multi- ple supply chain partners in a standard format consistent for all. The project is being co-funded by a grant from Innovate UK, an executive non-departmental pub- lic body sponsored by the Depart- ment for Business, Innovation & Skills, for more than £500,000. Skanska will receive just over £200,000 of this grant towards its project costs of around £400,000. Skanska is working alongside partners BRE, Multiple Access Communications, and Leader- flush Shapland to develop the re- search. The work will later be pi- loted with supply chain partners on real projects and its implemen- tation will accelerate the uptake of building information modelling (BIM), contributing to an estimat- ed 20% efficiency improvement. Ian Brixey, Skanska's project lead said: "We're extremely pleased to receive this funding. The outcome of the project has the potential to have a big impact on the entire construction and main- tenance processes used by the in- dustry. By using the latest digital techniques, we intend to get to a stage where the 'marking' of pro- ject components in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags / barcodes facilitates real-time monitoring of the manu- facturing process, delivery to site, storage and installation. "Once in place, the tagged components will remain for the life-cycle of the project, providing accurate information to those that need it. This level of information allows progress on projects to be monitored against plans and timescales. The process will all be automated, so the tags will be linked with a programme sched- ule to ensure what's needed is available and delivered when re- quired, with any delays being identified by the system in ad- vance." Terry Elphick, Skanska man- aging director, said the business is committed to "engaging with great innovative ideas", testing and trialling them to provide in- creased reliability and efficiency in project delivery. • North Midland Construction and Barhale joint venture BNM Alliance is to deliver three tunnelling projects and one pipeline project on the Elan Valley Aqueduct having been awarded a multimillion-pound AMP6 Infrastructure contract extension by Severn Trent Water. • J Murphy & Sons subsidiary Land & Marine is delivering a Trunk Mains Renovation Framework as part of Bristol Water's AMP6 capital delivery programme. The framework, worth up to £10M, comprises six schemes in a mixture of rural and urban environments. • Richard Allitt Associates has been appointed to Severn Trent Water's AMP6 Sewerage Management team. The contract, worth up to £49M, is for a range of consultancy services including network modelling and analysis for urban and rural catchment areas, hydraulic model maintenance and Integrated Urban Drainage studies within the Severn Trent area. Utilities, said cryptosporidium "is particularly vulnerable" to UV treatment and will ensure the system is completely clear. He said sampling had identi- fied that some of the service reservoirs on the Fylde coast would be the best place to put the portable UV C treatment units. Butcher said Franklaw treat- ment works is clear from the contamination, and the porta- ble equipment will help deal with the water going through the system. The UV technology is being used in strategic locations across the network following a detailed analysis of how the cryptosporidium bug is work- ing its way through the system. UU said installing the rigs has been one of its biggest ever engineering projects, with teams completing the work in days, something which would typically take months. The rigs and equipment were sourced from across the UK and Europe as part of a con- certed effort to resolve the situ- ation and end the boil water notice. Gary Dixon, UU customer services director, said: "The use of these UV rigs will help us speed up the process of destroy- ing the last traces of crypto- sporidium in the water. We've been using specialist analysis, called network modelling, to identify how the bug has been moving through the system, allowing us to set up these rigs up in targeted locations." The UV rigs, installed at Warbreck, Weeton, Westby, White Bull, Heighton and Haughton service reservoirs, are vast storage chambers that hold the water before it is piped to local homes and businesses. Water will pass through the UV rigs, destroying any remaining traces of the bug. 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"We've been using specialist analysis, called network modelling, to identify how the bug has been moving through the system, allowing us to set up these rigs up in targeted locations" Gary Dixon A boil water notice has been in place since August 6

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