WET News

4 WET NEWS september 2016 News+ Good monthT- Bad month For balfour beatty which, according to boss Leo Quinn, is starting to see tangible benefits from its transformation. For Horizon 2020 projects, as the treasury will underwrite approved schemes applied for before the UK leaves the eU. For Yorkshire Water, fined £350K by bradford Crown Court for illegally discharging sewage that polluted a Harrogate watercourse. For tap water, as new research by the Consumer Council for Water revealed the number of consumers drinking bottled still water has increased. Treatment to remove metaldehyde will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, warns Anglian Water • Water company urges more support from the water sector regulators, agriculture industry and pesticide manufacturers to find the best overall solution. A nglian Water has warned that the cost of setting up treatment to remove metaldehyde – a pesticide found in slug pellets – from water in the East of England would amount to almost £600M, making it "unsustainable for customers' bills". Such a solution would cost an additional £17M per year to run, resulting in a 21% increase in customer bills. The Drinking Water Directive states that individual pesticide levels in drinking water must not exceed 0.1 micrograms per litre. Regulators want to know by 2017 how this limit will be met for metaldehyde. At present an outright ban on metaldehyde from 2020 is a "real possibility" unless UK policymakers choose to pursue a more bespoke approach. Anglian Water has called for more support from the agriculture sector, water sector regulators and pesticide manufacturers to find the best solution overall. The firm's catchment strategy manager, Lucinda Gilfoyle, said: "If resolving this issue is le' to water companies alone any solution would likely need to be 'end-of-pipe'. Not all pesticides can be removed by conventional treatment technology meaning end-of- pipe solutions can't be relied upon as a panacea. "Even if a treatment solution is technically possible on such a large scale, our cost estimates show that funding it would be hugely costly and unsustainable for customers' bills. We strongly believe that domestic customers should not be the financial backstops for this." In May, Anglian revealed that its metaldehyde-free farming trial had achieved a 60% drop in levels of the substance detected in reservoir tributaries. Severn Trent and Thames Water have run similar trials. The results from the three companies found that even removing 100 per cent of metaldehyde from farmland is not sufficient to meet the drinking water legislation. The reasons for this are being investigated, but it is believed the chemical takes longer to break down than previously thought and could be coming from other sources such as domestic allotments. Gilfoyle said catchment management involves many different stakeholders, and should not be the sole responsibility of water companies to deliver. She added that a "collaborative catchment approach" across multiple business sectors would provide the "best option" to safeguard www.z-tech.co.uk 01223 653500 engineers@z-tech.co.uk Complete one-stop in-house solutions from dig to data: • Flowmeters • PRV's & Needle Valves • Burst Detection • Pumping Sets & Stations • Pressure & Level Monitoring Complete one-stop in-house Problem Solvers 24/7 EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICE CONTRACT WINS • Meter-U has been appointed to Lot 3 of thames Water's Amp6 water meter reading and sales investigation service framework, which is worth between £35m and 350m over 84 months. • J Murphy & Sons has been awarded a £1.35m contract by Gatwick Airport to upgrade a water pumping station in the airport's north terminal. the award will see Murphy re-develop a pumping station to run with a motorised computer control panel. • Veolia has won a contract from moray Council to monitor, maintain and service a key flood alleviation pumping station. As a vital element of the £44m Forres (River Findhorn & pilmuir) Flood Alleviation scheme, the pilmuir pumping station alleviates overland flooding. Water sector 'needs clear policy direction' following Brexit vote • Industry stakeholders set out three 'priority areas' in the run-up to Brexit and beyond. T he water sector has said it will work with the government to reduce uncertainty during EU-exit negotiations. Key water stakeholders met recently to discuss concerns for the sector due to the Brexit vote back in June. They set out three "priority areas" to work on, to ensure the sector and its customers are protected during the negotiation period and beyond: • Maintaining access to a full range of low-cost finance • Setting out clear long- term policy direction • Designing smart leg- islation that benefits customers and the environment "The success of the water sector has been built on a stable and predictable regulatory and business environment," said Water UK in a policy statement. "This has enabled water companies to raise long-term finance to deliver benefits to customers and the environment at an affordable price. Post- referendum, the water sector like all other industries is assessing the potential impacts across a range of areas." There are particularly concerns about the future of funding from the European Investment Bank, which has signed off around £5.5bn of finance contracts to the UK water sector since 2010. "We will work with government to seek assurances from the European Investment Bank on access to finance during exit negotiations and to identify longer-term options for access to low rate infrastructure finance," said Water UK. The group also said the strategic policy statement, being published by Defra later this year, should focus on a small number of key priorities for the water sector. It must also provide a "clear steer" on the pace and direction of market reform, and on resilience. "A national policy statement setting out government's expectations on water resource needs, alongside the forthcoming first National Infrastructure Assessment due in 2017, are further important opportunities to provide clarity and long-term direction," the group said. raw water quality effectively, while still enabling the agricultural sector to thrive. "More organisations need to take responsibility for catchment management as an essential approach, and for regulators to mirror this in the regulation too," she said." Not all pesticides can be removed through conventional treatment technology Need to know Anglian Water is the only water company to run a metaldehyde water treatment plant the Lincolnshire site has enabled the company to generate detailed cost predictions the company is not in favour of an outright ban on metaldehyde

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