Urban Waste Water Directive now completed in the UK

Photo courtesy of Southern Water Services

March 2013 marks an important milestone, with the commissioning of the Brighton and Hove wastewater treatment works all UK cities with more than 15000 pe will have secondary treatment. In Northern Ireland there is only one site left to complete namely Ballycastle, where plans are progressing. 

To mark the milestone DEFRA has published a review of waste water treatment in the UK. 

The situation in Europe is not so positive especially with the southern European countries where significant investment is still required despite the passing of the 2005 deadline!

The water companies currently collected about 96% of all wastewater generated the remaining 4% is mainly from very small rural communities or individual properties which will typically have private wastewater treatment plant or cess pits.

There are two main areas left where significant further investment will be required, sensitive areas and combined sewer overflows or as they are now often called unsatisfactory intermittent discharges (UIDs).

In 2011 the UK designated a further 68 sensitive areas bringing the total to nearly 600. Typically this will require water companies to install tertiary treatment. In addition the demands of the Water Framework Directive often required enhanced secondary treatment or tertiary treatment.  To meet the requirements for the new sensitive areas alone a further £40m of capital investment is likely to be required in the next regulatory period starting 2014. The deadline for completion is 2018.

The second major area is UIDs, here the wet summer has exacerbated problems and major investment will undoubtedly be needed – this will be covered in a subsequent blog.

It is a major achievement to have met the main requirements of the Urban Waste Water Directive and the total bill is likely to have been about £8 billion.