The mission to improve water quality in Somerset is on track to receive a further boost as a multi-million pound investment is completed in the north of the county later this autumn.
More than £15 million is being invested at the water recycling centre serving Shepton Mallet, ensuring the way sewage arriving there is treated will continue to meet rigorous environmental standards.
Building enhanced treatment capacity will also meet the demands of the expected growth of the local population over the next two decades.
The refurbishment of the centre to the west of the town is part of more than £400 million being invested by Wessex Water to upgrade water recycling centres throughout its region by the end of next year.
Much of the work will focus on advanced methods to remove more pollutants like ammonia and phosphorus that are often found within wastewater and that can affect the health of rivers, in Shepton Mallet’s case the nearby River Sheppey that runs through the town.
Project manager Hannah Sweeney said:
“Reducing the presence of these nutrients in the sewage arriving at our water recycling centres is one of the biggest challenges Wessex Water is stepping up to meet.
“They can be found in agricultural fertilisers, farm slurries, septic tank discharges as well as domestic wastewater and can cause large growths of algae in streams and rivers, which can damage plants and animals by depleting the amount of oxygen in the water – a process known as eutrophication.
“In improving the processes for removing them at our Shepton Mallet site, we’ll make sure our treatment continues to meet the high standards set by the Environment Agency and improve the condition of the River Sheppey.
“By the end of this year we’ll have upgraded existing equipment and installed new processes to ensure sewage from the local community continues to be safely treated.’’
The Shepton Mallet site also serves the nearby villages of Bowlish, Darshill, Doulting and Downside and a number of further treatment units have been added, including biological treatment, additional sludge storage, new controls and upgrading of infrastructure to improve performance in the future.
Chemical dosing systems, pump stations and monitoring equipment will also be in place with the refurbishment taking place within the existing boundaries of the centre.
The work continues Wessex Water’s push to further protect Somerset’s waterways from the impact of nutrients, that has seen a number of projects already under way or planned.
More than £12 million of investment has already been targeted towards protecting the Wellow Brook on the edge of the Mendips, with teams moving on to the water recycling centre in Radstock in February as part of a £7 million scheme, in advance of £2.5 million of enhancements for further projects at rural locations next year.
Further south nearly £3 million has been spent to reduce nutrient impact at water recycling centres near the villages of Nether Stowey and Stogursey, to the west of Bridgwater.
Sites at Martock, Crewkerne, Merriott and Somerton have also been enhanced as part of more than £18 million of recent investment to reduce nutrient impact.
Wessex Water has also proposed more than £900 million towards stripping out nutrients from wastewater as part of around £3.5 billion of new investment between 2025 and 2030 – more than double the current five-yearly spend.
That Business Plan is currently subject to scrutiny and discussion with the industry regulator Ofwat.
