Water & Wastewater Treatment

risk-based approach, in which it only upgrades those most at risk of failure. Telemetry is key for the companies in understanding what their new assets will be doing, but once again the issue of a lack of time, and the resource challenge, means simpler solutions will be installed into the private pumping stations, rather than the more complex systems they usually operate. Summarising, Guy Fitzpatrick from Xylem stated everyone connected to the industry is working hard to ensure the whole adoption process will go ahead as smoothly as possibly, with as few incidents as possible. But he warned: "the risk clearly lies at the feet of the water companies". It is that risk the industry is trying to mitigate by doing what it can to find all of the pumping stations they will have to adopt, and making sure they continue to function – even if that is below the ideal standards the water companies would like. By Mathew Beech www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | DECEMBER 2015 | 13 in association with 5 to take away 1. The number of newly found and adopted pri- vate pumping stations is falling for the water companies – except for Thames Water 2.Eligibility remains a "very grey area" with pumps serving blocks of flats a particular problem 3.The telemetry needs for the newly adopted pumping stations are variable because of the different asset standards in place 4.A risk-based approach to upgrading stations may be required because of the limited time now available 5.Clarity is required from regulators on private pumping stations built a er 2011 Ridout said the regulator could suffer as a result of the lack of clarity a„er the October 2016 deadline, as a number of appeals could come in from customers believing their pumping station should have been adopted. The delegates also voiced their concerns, from the viewpoint of developers, customers and water companies, over the ongoing uncertainty of post-2011 pumping stations – which are not lined up to be adopted. Northumbrian Water infrastructure delivery engineer Paul Richardson warned this will result in hundreds if not thousands of new private pumping stations being "le„ in limbo land", while Sam Oliver, Severn Trent's programme manager said that without better planning, the industry risks facing a repeat of the current situation in a decade or more's time. Defra's senior policy adviser India Perry attempted to reassure the companies and developers that their concerns are being listed to and acted upon in a bid to un-muddy the waters. Away from the policy ambiguity, the water companies believe they have made significant progress and "broken the back" of finding the private pumping stations – utilising local authorities, regional media, and even internal staff incentives in an attempt to locate the assets that will soon be theirs. Representatives of the housebuilding industry present at the event were less convinced everything had been done to locate the pumping stations, and said that while they are more than willing to help the water companies "take them off our hands" they have not been asked for their help. "I would have thought companies would be banging my door down," said Rob Nicholls, engineer, Barratt Homes. Finally, attention turned to those pumping stations that had been found, and that are being lined up for adoption, regardless of the condition they are in. United Utilities' south area maintenance manager Jason Doward said that his company's approach is to make as many stations as possible "safe and serviceable". However, time and resource constraints mean that not all of the pumping stations will be brought up to the standard of their other assets. This was exemplified by Thames Water specialist network manager Justin Camis, who said the company had intended to upgrade all the stations, before the scale of the operation was fully realised; Thames is pursuing a NEXT EVENT WWT Wastewater 2016 conference, 28th January, Birmingham. wwt-wastewater.net

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