Process Premier Award

 Process Premier Award 2010 sponsored by E.ON UK plc

Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 8 June 2010 by Sir Anthony Cleaver, BCE Environmental Leadership Awards.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Cog Moors ultraviolet storm water treatment

Sir Anthony Cleaver presenting the BCE Process Premier Award to Andrew Bowen, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, sixth largest of ten water and sewerage companies in England and Wales, had a turnover of £657 million in 2008/09.

To protect public health, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection of effluent from wastewater plants is used to reduce bacteria and virus levels. The effectiveness of this treatment depends on a number of factors. Previously, it had been used only on good-quality water (transmittance 45% and low solids). Traditionally, the technology was not used on effluents from combined sewage overflows and storm overflows because of poor quality. Instead, the effluent is held in large concrete tanks and released in controlled quantities.

A pilot project at Cog Moors treatment works proved that UV consistently reduces bacteria and viruses in intermittent storm overflows to well within current and future microbiological standards. The environmental and economic impact of installing tanks is avoided. In April 2009, a full-scale UV plant was commissioned on an intermittent storm discharge at Cog Moors and confirmed the efficacy of the process during the subsequent bathing season.

A carbon account comparing additional storage tanks and the UV plant showed the former would have 10x the carbon footprint of the latter over the plant lifetime. UV has the lowest whole-life costs, and minimal construction and operational impacts in an
environmentally and socially sensitive area. In this catchment alone, the savings directly attributable to this technology are over £20 million. Using this technolog throughout the UK would bring significant environmental and cost benefits. 

To see the Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water video click here. 

To find out more about this project, please contact:
andrew.bowen@dwrcymru.com
www.dwrcymru.co.uk

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