UK Water Companies Research Articles

Leakage Targets and Socio‐Economic Efficiency

AbstractDuring the last few years, the introduction of mandatory leakage targets for UK water companies has had the positive effect of reducing levels of leakage, while requiring the companies to operate at an economic level of leakage. Unfortunately, the determination of company‐specific economic levels of leakage have been a source of disagreement between the water companies and the Government, with the Government view that water companies are not using the true long‐term marginal costs of water abstraction, and therefore are not safeguarding the environment.This paper (a) reviews the model which was used to define the economic level of leakage, (b) argues the case for resource management based on the impact of water abstractions on the socio‐environmental quality of a resource rather than the myopic focus on leakage reductions, (c) presents the concepts of effectiveness and efficiency in relation to socio‐environmental quality, and (d) proposes a new methodology which allows the determination of water abstraction rates while maintaining a desired level of socio‐environmental quality.

Perspectives for Phosphorus Recovery Offered by Enhanced Biological P Removal

The current position with respect to phosphorus removal in a UK water company is discussed. The factors that would favour a change from the current practice of metal salt dosing to Biological removal are examined. The potential for recovering phosphorus fixed biologically is considered and possible process routes presented.

CLEARWATER TO BLUE FLAG WATER.

Customer opinion research by Anglian Water has shown that seawater quality at bathing beaches is a high priority. Satisfying this need, as well as meeting legal obligations under the EU bathing water directive, has involved the company in a £266 million investment programme around its coastline. This paper describes the programme, called project Clearwater, and the range of engineering solutions devised. It indicates how attention paid to marine modelling, linked to engineering work on intermittent discharges as well as the continuous discharges, has led to a successful outcome, namely the first UK water company to achieve 100% compliance at its designated bathing waters.

Recycling urban waste on farmland: an actor-network interpretation

The problem of disposing of urban waste has been thrown into prominence by the European Union Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EC) banning member states from dumping sewage sludge at sea from the end of 1998. The paper investigates one of the alternative disposal methods available to UK water companies, namely the recycling of sewage sludge on farmland. An `actor-network' interpretation is developed, which focuses on the human actors and non-human intermediaries in the recycling of sewage sludge in agriculture. `Regulation' and `pricing' are shown to be competing `modes of ordering' within the actor network, with scientific knowledge in its material forms as one of the principal actants. The actor network is used to consider the limits to the spreading of sewage sludge on farmland as a form of `sustainable' resource management.

The development of a fine particle monitor based on the method of dynamic light extinction

Since the publication of the 1990 Badenoch report into Cryptosporidium in water supplies, UK water companies have been finding ways to improve monitoring and control systems for water treatment processes. Further improvements are still desirable, and the present paper describes work carried out by Anglian Water, in collaboration with University College, London and Diverse Technologies & Systems Ltd of Cambridge, to develop an inexpensive Fine Particle Monitor suitable for routine operational use on water treatment works.

An automated sample preparation and testing laboratory for North West Water

This paper discusses a large robotic automation project implemented by Thurnall Plc. on behalf of a major UK water company. The system, which automates the analysis of routine clean and dirty water samples, incorporates 22 individual robots configured into 19 robotic cells together with a transport system to carry samples from the reception area into the analytical cells and then to a wash area for residual sample disposal and bottle washing. Control is performed by 21 local computers coordinated by 5 supervisory control systems which in turn link into a LIMS system for data manipulation and long term storage. This paper discusses the life cycle of the project and examines the following generic issues relating to the integration of large scale automation projects: (a) the factors governing a decision to automate on this scale; (b) the automation to be adopted; (c) risk reduction strategy; (d) the benefits to be achieved from such a scheme.

Quality Control of Numerical Models of Marine and Estuarine Effluent Outfalls

Quality Control procedures were developed and implemented on behalf of a UK water company for the procurement of a suite of numerical models of advection and dispersion from effluent outfalls. The paper explains the need for quality control and describes the methods employed. These were a set of technical audits and performance trials. Some interesting technical issues arose from this work. These examined: the sensitivity of shoreline solutions to variations in parameter values; showed that simulations must be of sufficient duration to reach convergence; showed that the surface wind creates a shear dispersion effect which has an important effect on an effluent plume; and investigated the choice of diffusion coefficients with reference to along and across tide diffusivities and the need for consistency between nested models.