Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | NOVEMBER 2015 | 15 restaurants, or any outlet where food and drink are sold, have agreed to display a sticker inviting the public to come in and refill their water bottle free of charge. With over 100 businesses in Bristol signed up so far, this can provide similar benefits to drinking fountains without requiring extra investment in infrastructure. Another project which is using technology to show how water consumption can be reduced is Bristol Water's research tie-up with the University of the West of England using smart meters in Frenchay Student Village. The student accommodation has provided the perfect test environment for water-reducing initiatives through the year, producing reams of helpful data, explains Bulmer. "The four buildings are exactly the same, with five or six hundred people in each building. We've installed water efficient shower heads in one block, flow reducing devices on taps in another, and done engagement programmes in another, while leaving one as a control. All this is starting to build up a much more robust evidence base about what measures make a difference." "We have an absolute flood of data coming in from that, because it's 15-minute data from dozens of water meters for a year and half - that's a lot of data points. We have some pHD students working on that to start to unravel where the significant changes actually occur - which of them are just 'noise' and which you might be able to replicate. The importance of this will simply grow with time, because as you turn from a million or so data points to ten million, fi'y million, that becomes progressively more significant." The Green Capital banner has also allowed Bristol Water to promote initiatives around biodiversity. Its 'Spawn to be Wild' programme has used captured eels in tanks to educate schoolchildren about the value of the creatures and biodiversity in water environments; it has also supported a hedgelaying championships at Chew Valley Lake, one of the area's most important water resources. Biodiversity is a field in which the company has been particularly forward-thinking, creating its own 'biodiversity index' for measuring the environmental impacts of its work, a valuable tool when working towards the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. "One of the strong bits of feedback from our engagement forum for PR14 was that customers said they wanted us to start thinking about what we could do to help biodiversity in a cost beneficial way," explains Bulmer. "That's why we thought we needed to find a way of quantifying how good our sites are at the moment, which gives us a basis for coming up with plans for how we improve that. It's a principle that we are going to be applying throughout our whole AMP6 investment programme, that when we do work we leave a positive biodiversity footprint. If there's any negative impact from a scheme, we have to quantify that impact, and find a way of mitigating or offsetting it elsewhere." Catchment management initiatives remain a focus for Bulmer and his colleagues in AMP6. Key challenges include working with farmers to eliminate metaldehyde – a pesticide used to control slugs which is particularly difficult to deal with in the treatment works – and controlling a number of nutrients which have led to issues with algal blooms in surface water sources in the Mendip Lakes. Environmental aims are extremely prominent in the company's business plan, and Bulmer, who was Bristol Water's first Environment Manager when the role was created eight years ago, says the nature of environmental protection work has changed immeasurably over the years. "It's great to see the professionalising of environmental issues - not in the context of making it all grey and homogenous and businesslike, but in the practical sense of thinking about the things you have to deliver and setting about doing them," he says. "It now feels a lot more like 'working for' the environment rather than the 1970s or 1980s version of 'campaigning against' something." He is confident that Bristol's year as European Green Capital will leave a lasting legacy of collaboration on green issues. "It's changed the feel of the city, to one where the expectation within Bristol is that we will be outstanding for environmental protection. It's something that you only really start to understand when you go somewhere else and realise that they are not doing what we are doing yet: whether that is attitudes towards cycling, towards recycling, sustainable energy, local sourcing of food, or biodiversity. Once you set off in that positive direction it builds a momentum of its own." Patric Bulmer is speaking at WWT's Innovation conference, December 1st, in Birmingham. Details: wwt-innovation.net • Patric Bulmer: CV ● Patric Bulmer has a BSc in Geochemistry and postgraduate qualifications in water and environmental management; a chartered environmentalist, he joined Bristol Water as a water quality scientist in 1991 ● He was Bristol Water's first Environment Manager when the role was created in 2008. Now Head of Environment Strategy, he is responsible for the overall environmental performance of the business, including the strategic planning required to meet the company's key "Environmentally Sustainable" business aim. ● Bulmer chairs the European Green Capital Water Network Water Group in Bristol, which includes representatives from the Environment Agency, Bristol City Council and Wessex Water, as well as engineering firms, consultancies, local businesses and third sector groups. ● He is also an executive member of Climate Southwest, a board member of the Rockefeller Resilient Cities Sounding Board, and chairs the external oversight board of the International Water Security network ● Hear more from Patric at WWT's Water Industry Technology Innovation conference in Birmingham on December 1st. Details at wwt-innovation.net

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