Foam production at WRC outfalls – can you help? November 4th, 2021 by Wessex Water Background At some water recycling centres (WRCs) in the Wessex Water region, foaming sometimes occurs where the final treated effluent discharges into the environment. We have run many suites of upstream / downstream watercourse samples and ecological surveys and found that no environmental damage occurs. However, these instances can result in loss of amenity value…
Alternatives to plastic bead media – can you help? September 21st, 2021 by Wessex Water Wessex Water has a number of Biological Aerated Flooded Filter (BAFF) plants that utilise buoyant plastic bead media for wastewater treatment. There is an inherent risk of plastic loss to the environment given the media floats and can be gradually abraded over time. Abraded micro-plastics are able to evade the containment systems installed to prevent…
Water Resources Management Plan 24 – Option suggestions September 16th, 2021 by Wessex Water We need to plan ahead to ensure we have sustainable water resources to supply our customers, and are currently putting together our Water Resources Management Plan for 2025-2075. As part of this process we’re open to suggestions of ways to improve our supply demand balance and invite the market to come forward with new suggestions.…
Crude Sewage rapid chemical mixing for phosphorus removal – can you help? April 1st, 2021 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: Having reviewed the submissions and requested further information where required, we are now exploring the possibility of trialling some of the solutions. We’ll provide further updates in due course. We are required to remove phosphorus (P) from the effluent discharges of many of our water recycling centres (WRCs). For AMP7 (2020-2025) there…
Water quality customer contacts January 12th, 2021 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: Thank you to those who submitted suggestions for this challenge; we’ve been in touch with all companies. We had a number of suggestions for smart networks which is something we’re actively considering but not something we can jump into immediately, and for other areas where we need to develop our strategy…
Ion Exchange Brine Challenge July 24th, 2020 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: A good selection of responses received from enhancements to existing process systems through to new and alternative technologies. In the short term we have agreed to proceed with the adoption of a software monitoring tool to optimise current operation of the ion exchange plant. We will maintain an active watching brief on…
Sewer misuse marketing challenge May 14th, 2020 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: One of the suggestions from the Marketplace challenge was the idea of rallying people to protect their community from blockages by focusing the campaign on hyperlocal areas. This concept fits well with our company values around community, and we’ve incorporated it into our Autumn 2021 sewer misuse campaign. We have picked…
Acoustic leak detection December 13th, 2019 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: We received some interesting submissions for this challenge and explored several options. Unfortunately we were unable to take things further due to changes in the business, but will bear the suppliers who participated in mind should the need re-emerge. Background Wessex Water is able to deploy up to 800 acoustic loggers a…
How we can serve new developments more effectively October 30th, 2019 by Wessex Water With government targets to build upwards of 250,000 new homes a year, the number of new developments across the country is set to increase. Within the Wessex Water region we are seeing ambitious plans to increase the number of homes in the South West – a Joint Spatial Plan is being created by four of…
Intelligent sewers; can we make alarms smarter? October 3rd, 2019 by Wessex Water This challenge is now closed, but the data is still available to download on the datasets page. Read our case study to find out the outcome of the challenge. (You may also find this earlier case study of interest.) You can also read more in the industry press: Water Online ; New Civil Engineer Following…
Keeping STWs clean with anti-fouling paint – can you help? September 10th, 2019 by Wessex Water Background Sewage treatment works, water recycling centres, waste water treatment plants – whatever you call them, the principle is the same. They treat domestic and trade waste to an appropriate level to discharge to the environment. By their very nature they accumulate dirt and debris, but we’re looking to further improve our compliance record by…
Bringing AI to sewer scanning – can you help? July 5th, 2019 by Wessex Water Please note that as of 9th August this challenge is now closed to further entrants due to the high number of parties involved. Challenge update Autumn 2021: We’ve completed trials with four companies and their offerings. We’re now looking at next steps and will update the blog in the near future with our direction. Every…
Phosphorus removal on small sites – can you help? June 20th, 2019 by Wessex Water This challenge is now closed, but the page will remain to share the challenges that we have previously explored. Challenge update Autumn 2021: A number of options were suggested – thank you to those who submitted ideas. Some were more appropriate for larger sites and have been earmarked for future consideration. Others would have had,…
Water Efficiency Marketplace Challenge June 14th, 2019 by Wessex Water This challenge is now closed, but the page will remain to share the challenges that we have previously explored. Read our case study here to find out the latest on this challenge. Supporting our customers to reduce their water consumption at home is a core part of our water efficiency programme – if approved, our 2020-25…
The business plan April 16th, 2019 by Wessex Water Our business plan for 2020-2025 sets out proposals on how we intend to further improve water and sewerage services over future years. To put our plan together we carried out our biggest ever consultation with customers, with more than 140,000 people providing feedback through surveys and independent focus groups giving their views on bills and services.…
The PSTN challenge April 10th, 2019 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: After a number of proposals from suppliers on mitigating the changes needed for PSTN equipment the internal costs for installation of these outweighed the benefits provided by the solutions. Instead we have opted for like-for-like replacement using existing power infrastructure. In May 2018 OpenReach (BT) launched a consultation on the move from…
Hampshire Avon phosphorus reduction challenge April 8th, 2019 by Wessex Water Challenge update Autumn 2021: This blog post contains an update on a scheme we ran in the Hampshire Avon: https://marketplace.wessexwater.co.uk/2020/08/19/auctions-nature-based-solutions-and-offsetting-in-the-hampshire-avon/ This challenge is now closed, but the page will remain to share the challenges that we have previously explored. If approved as part of our 2020-25 business plan, we’ll aim to improve the river water…
