WET News

News: Siltbuster and Siltbuster Process Solutions join Selwood Group. P4 Onsite: Caledonia Water Alliance on the challenges of its pipeline project for Scottish Water. P10-11 Insight: SUEZ gives us the lowdown on satellite leak detection. P20-21 WET NEWS WATER AND EFFLUENT TREATMENT NEWS North-West company sees the biological wastewater treatment process as the future UU awards contract to build Europe's largest Nereda Plant MARCH 2018 Volume 24 • Issue 3 Water industry 'dys nctional', Labour says Water companies to invest over £8BN in 2018-19 U nited Utilities has awarded a contract that it says will see Europe's largest pur- pose-built Nereda process plant built at its Blackburn wastewater treatment works (WwTW). T h e t e c h n o l o g y w i l l b e installed at Blackburn WwTW as part of a circa £100M infrastruc- ture upgrade at the site, aimed at improving local watercourses that are tributaries of the River Darwen, which feeds into the River Ribble. UU said it will be Europe's largest population-equivalent purpose-built Nereda technology s o l u t i o n , w i t h a vo l u m e o f 72,000m 3 . The project, which will be delivered by United Utilities' construction partner LiMA, is due to be fully operational in 2021. Richard RatcliŒ , UU's Engi- neering Delivery Director, said: "The installation of the Nereda technology represents a signi' - cant and evolutionary step in wastewater treatment technology. It provides the lowest whole-life cost solution for Blackburn WwTW through e" cient energy usage and biologically removing phosphorus, thus signi' cantly reducing chemical dosing costs." At the WWT Wastewater 2018 conference in Birmingham, UU's Head of Innovation, Kieran Brock- lebank, told delegates the com- pany sees Nereda as an important I rish Water has started an €80M upgrade to its largest waste- water treatment plant. Ringsend was built to treat the wastewater for the equivalent of 1.64 million people. Currently the plant services over 40% of the national population and is treat- ing wastewater for the equivalent of 1.9 million people. The work is expected to take around two years to construct and w i l l a c c o m m o d a t e c u r r e n t part of its future. "We've had some great suc- cess. In a matter of only three years, we've managed to get four very large contract awards for Nereda," he said. "We've proven this technology, we've trialled it, we've shared it and we've got it h a r d w i r e d i n t o o u r c a p i t a l programme." He explained that UU had been motivated to seek better solutions due to a changing envi- ronment involving "growing pres- sure with costs, increasing com- pliance, rising populations and a desire from water companies and our stakeholders to use fewer chemicals, consume less energy and create a smaller footprint". He added: "The wastewater sector is really ripe for disruption." He said the trial period, which involved the development a pilot p l a n t w i t h a s s i s t a n c e f r o m L abour has underlined its intention to renationalise the water industry, with Shadow Chancellor John McDon- nell saying the situation in recent years is a "national scandal". McDonnell said there had been a 40% rise in water bills in real terms since the industry was pri- vatised in 1989 and companies had paid out a total of £13.5BN to shareholders since 2010. "It is a national scandal that since 2010 these companies have paid billions to their shareholders, almost all their profits, whilst receiving more in tax credits than they paid in tax," he told the Observer. "These companies oper- ate regional monopolies which have pro' ted at the expense of consumers who have no choice in who supplies their water. "Labour will replace this dys- functional system with a network of regional, publicly owned water companies." A recent report suggested renationalisation may cost £90BN, but McDonnell said the pro' ts meant it "would be cost free". E n v i r o n m e n t S e c r e t a r y Michael Gove has said he is pre- pared to give Ofwat greater powers amid concerns over "excessive pro' ts", but Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "The regulators have proved too weak, too close to the companies they're supposed to be regulating and too prone to corporate capture." Water UK's Michael Roberts said the industry was "starved of cash" under public ownership. W ater companies in Eng- land and Wales will invest more than £8BN in 2018-19, Water UK has said. The investment comes in the fourth year of a £44BN spending commitment from 2015 to 2020. The £44BN is set to ensure that more than 370 million litres a day is prevented from leaking from pipes, nearly 5,000 fewer proper- ties will be § ooded with sewer water, and there will be cleaner water at more than 50 beaches. The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales for 2018-19 will rise by £9 (2%) compared with the provi- sional ' gure for the previous year. Next year's below-inflation change to average bills is in the context of an overall cut in bills of 5% in real terms between 2015- 2020 as part of plans developed in consultation with customers and con' rmed by Ofwat in 2014. Water UK Chief Executive Michael Roberts said: "We know that households are under ' nan- cial pressure in a number of ways. Even though the cost of water and sewerage is much less than other services, it all adds up, which is why water companies are doing everything they can to keep bills as low as possible while keeping up huge levels of investment. Our customers deserve a world-class service, and we'll continue to provide it, giving people some of the best water in the world, cut- ting leaks, improving the environ- ment and helping customers who struggle to pay their bills." leading the way in bringing the technology from the Netherlands into the UK had been hard work. He spoke about the challenges of persuading sceptics that Nereda was the way forward, with the wastewater industry having "used the same activated sludge process, with some tweaks here and there, for over 100 years". "We spent ages and a huge amount of eŒ ort – more than the trial period itself – in sharing this knowledge internally and per- suading the sceptical people who've known the tried-and- tested methods of the last 100 years," he said. "We had lots of people to try to prove this to as we tried to satisfy ourselves." Persuading the supply chain presented a further challenge. "United Utilities has a design- and-build style of contract, so we work with four construction part- ners and it's their job to come up with the best solutions in our capital programme," he said. "Having done United Utilities trials and proved it to ourselves, now we have to rely on the supply chain to actually volunteer that solution as the best one. We then spent a long time persuading our supply chain about this technol- ogy and what it can do. That was quite interesting because it was their job to then oŒ er it to us in capital projects." "Departure from the EU gives us the opportunity to tap into this global market." Environment Minister Therese Co ey, P2 "We're not going to sit back and just become one of the others." Brendan Dowd, Trant Engineering, P8 Engineering, P8 demand, support planned hous- ing and economic growth in the Dublin region and will improve the quality of the treated waste- water discharged to the Liffey estuary. Currently, the plant serves the Greater Dublin Area including the city centre and stretching to suburban areas such as Dalkey, Rathcoole, Clondalkin, Blan- chardstown/Mulhuddart, Dublin Airport and Howth, as well as parts of Meath such as Dunboyne, Clonee and Ashbourne. This capacity upgrade is one part of an overall investment of €400M by Irish Water in the Ring- send Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Project. Subject to planning permis- sion, the overall upgrade project will enable full treatment of wastewater for the equivalent of 2.4 million people, meeting all foreseeable development needs to at least 2025. Lord Mayor of Dublin City Mícheál MacDonncha said: "With the CSO predicting the population of the Greater Dublin Area to grow by 1% per year over the next 10 to 15 years, it is vital our infra- structure keeps up with that growth. This investment will enable future housing and com- mercial development and help ensure Dublin is able to sustain continued growth." Irish Water begins €80M upgrade to WwTP "The wastewater sector is really ripe for disruption" Kieran Brocklebank, United Utilities' Head of innovation Therese Co ey, c o - i nve n t e r s R o y a l HaskoningDHV, had suc- cessfully established that Nereda could deliver on its stated bene' ts: e¯ uent quality, lower Totex (total expenditure), smaller footprint, automated control, remote monitoring and control and resource recovery. However, Brocklebank said

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