Low tech fixes to UK sewage in Isle of Wight
‘Smart’ water butts to a centralised computer system are being tested by Southern Water to reduce UK sewage spills. It is a cheap, green and smart solution for sewage issue.
Without the need for massive new treatment facilities, Southern Water is leveraging ‘green’ infrastructure and smart technologies in the Isle of Wight, as well as some really low-tech fixes, to improve its bad environmental record.
The Environment Agency(EA) has given Southern Water, which serves the island, a one-star rating, and the island’s largest treatment facility, the Sandown plant, has already discharged more than 300 times this year 2023 alone.
However, the Isle of Wight is the obvious location for Southern to test attempts to reduce sewage pollution because the majority of the issue is concentrated in a single treatment facility and the island’s network is remote.
The company’s taskforce for lowering discharges is led by Dr. Nick Mills, who noted that the Isle of Wight is a particularly special location. on its eastern border, there is a sizable treatment facility named Sandown.
What’s wrong with current water treatment facility when rainfalls
Due to the extensive pumping and processing of water, there are several overflows on the Isle of Wight’s urban area, which is all piped to Sandown for treatment.
For these reasons, the taskforce is testing new techniques in the island, one of six pathfinder sites, that can be used in the upcoming years to reduce those overflows.
High streets are being redesigned, large plants are being donated to schools, and even the simple water butt is being connected to a centralised computer network.
Campaigners frequently target Southern Water. Its territory includes several well-known and popular beaches in Britain, such as Brighton and Margate, as well as well-known shellfishing locations like Whitstable and hundreds on the issue.
Southern Water must fulfill the objectives for lowering discharge that regulators and the Government have established as a result of public demand. A three or four star EA rating is something that the cooperation has committed to achieving by 2025 under the leadership of Lawrence Gosden, who took over as CEO July 2022.
Building sewage treatment plants with ever-increasing storage and treatment capabilities is the conventional method for reducing discharges. Infrastructure like this is referred to as grey infrastructure after the hue of concrete.
However, depending on the area, the failure to properly handle human waste may not be the primary cause the UK’s sewage issues.The sewage from houses and businesses is combined with surface runoff from rains in Britain’s sewage system.
In order to prevent the system from backing up and flooding, it is released untreated into rivers and oceans when this is more than a treatment facility can handle. Because of the combined sewers, up to 95% of the liquid that overwhelms treatment facilities may just be rainfall.
Although sewage discharges would still be an issue if that rainfall hadn’t entered the system, it does suggest that they might be prevented. This makes green infrastructure initiaves a possibility.
Southern Water attempts to abide by three principles, according to Dr. Mills. Manage what comes in, make the most of what we already have to function more effectively, and we can now apply pretty intelligent technology to a system that is essentially quite passive.
Then you complete items one and two first, hopefully reducing the size of the grey conventional infrastructure and, in some situations, eliminating the need to complete everything at once.
Water butts to a centralised computer system
When there is too much water flowing through sewage networks, they are intended to empty into nearby rivers and the ocean. The company’s first two initiatives involve improving the functionality of its current infrastructure and making it smarter.
In one scheme, for instance, gates are installed within pipelines and used to hold water until it can be treated. Other contemporary hosing developments had surface water and wastewater pipes installed separately, while the former was connected directly to the sewer network.
Prior to any preparations to divide them, Southern Water is mapping these.
However, if the business is to rely on green infrastructure, it will need to collaborate with outsiders and persuade them to consider rainwater. An initiative to provide adapted water butts to the Isle of Wight community of Havenstreet has been one of the most notably early achievements.
The storage butts have a small drain placed halfway up that allows the water to flow slowly over several hours, limiting the rush of water into sewers and guaranteeing that there is still water in the butt for the customer as well as the ability to capture further rainwater.
During the pilot, sewage overflows were minimised by 70% while significant rain events of up to 35mm were avoided. A considerably more expensive trial programme utilising “smart” water butt is also underway.
A central operator may instantly drain the water tanks if rain is expected, releasing them to collect the downpour. Currently, the costs are too high for a widespread deployment, but Southern Water plans to install them on sizable industrial sites to help drive down costs by creating a market.
It has had the chance to repair its damaged reputation and interact with consumers because it has to knock on doors and distribute the free butts. The slow-draining planters were planted by schools and included in their scientific courses.
According to Dr. Mills, it’s a chance for us to get back in touch with our consumers, maybe win back their confidence, and provide them with a helpful freebie.
Engaged attendees at drop-in events sometimes begin quite prickly, but in the end, both they and the campaigners overwhelmingly want us to succeed.
To carry out its goals, Southern Water will need to work with private homeowners as well as institutions like hospitals, businesses, and municipal planners. The main single sources of runoff are roads and rooftops.
Southern has offered to work with owners to delay the water leaving their buildings after using technologies to identify the biggest roofs in its catchment. The business has distributed slow-drain planters here, including at 43 schools.
These are large flower pots with very deep soil that drain very slowly. With roads, there is a significant chance to revitalise run-down high streets. On the Isle of Wight, Newport High Street will be reconstructed.
Southern Water shared design consultants with the council as part of the process to incorporate sustainable drainage into the project, and it will be responsible for any additional costs resulting from the plans.
The end result is a high street in the future that is peppered with rain gardens that are filled with plants and trees, with asphalt that is made to channel water towards the vegetation.
The challenge now will be to identify these at the appropriate moments so that no money is wasted on town centres without sustainable drainage, according to Dr. Miller. It is a significant milestone for us and there will be more of those.
Even when combined, these many initiatives won’t completely stop sewage flows. Cost-wise, eliminating sewage spills will be much more expensive than merely minimising them.
The overflows won’t be shut off, they won’t be bricked up, and they’ll still be needed for severe occurrences, but we’ll use them far less frequently than they are now.
That’s not good enough for many activities, therefore they are bringing the Government to court to demand that the water providers meet stricter standards. However, this green infrastructure ought to offer more advantages than simply putting more concrete.
When you consider the whole expenses and add up the additional advantages of biodiversity, surface water management, reduced flood risk, carbon, removing surface water from the system rather than pumping treated rainfall around, that has had to be better
Southern Water is testing it first in Isle of Wight leveraging ‘green’ infrastructure and smart technologies with smart water butts to a centralised computer system.
Source: inews
