Southern redesigns wastewater site to slash spills

Southern Water has redesigned a wastewater treatment works in Kent to reduce storm overflows at a spill hotspot.

The company claims that by redesigning its Swalecliffe site near Whistable, it will be able to cut overflows in the area by up to 30% thanks to the installation of new chambers and pipework.

Campaigners and local businesses have been calling for action after it was revealed that the area had seen 202 sewage releases last year.

The project, being overseen by Southern Water and the Environment Agency, will create 1,800 cubic metres of extra storage capacity, allowing space for an additional 450 litres of stormwater per second to be contained.

In total, Southern Water is investing over £25 million in upgrades to the Swalecliffe Wastewater Treatment works, including the replacement of the storm overflow pipe.

On top of this, further investment is planned in the local area to reduce and slow the amount of surface water entering the system in the longer term, with an announcement due later this summer.

Southern Water’s project manager Jon Yates said: “We are under no illusions that our environmental performance in the Whitstable area must improve and this is just the latest milestone in the programme of work we’re doing to address storm overflows here.

“It is really positive that the redesign of the Swalecliffe site is set to cut storm overflows by up to 30%, but we are keen to press ahead and continue our work to increase this number with other measures we’re taking in the area.”

Southern has also launched an initiative with community group SOS Whitstable to install 2,000 slow-draining water butts at homes near Tankerton Beach.

The Environment Agency recently identified Southern as one of five companies requiring improvement on their environmental performance. The other four companies include Anglian Water, South West Water, Thames Water and Wessex Water.

The agency’s annual Environmental performance assessment report concludes: “We are concerned that some companies will not or cannot change. Anglian Water and Thames Water repeatedly dominate serious incident numbers.

“Southern Water and South West Water have been rated red for their high number of total incidents for far too many years.

“These water companies in particular need to make radical changes now, but all water companies have areas to improve.”

Southern Water data shows that in 2022:

• The average number of spills per storm overflow was 17.8, compared to 20.2 in 2021
• The total number of monitored spill events in 2022 was 16,688, compared to 19,077 in 2021
• 0.7 of storm overflows spilt more than 100 times, compared to 2% in 2021
• 19.6% of storm overflows did not spill at all, compared to 18.6% in 2021

Responding to the Environment Agency’s assessment earlier this year, Southern chief executive Lawrence Gosden said: “This has been a challenging year for our customers and our business. The sector is under intense scrutiny. We also face diverse and significant regional and industry-wide challenges of climate change, population growth and the need to upgrade a legacy network of pipes and pumping stations, treatment works and storm overflows to meet increasingly stringent regulatory standards and the expectations of our customers and wider.

“We understand and are responding to these challenges. Whilst we are making progress against the commitments outlined by our new majority shareholder in late 2021 and our April 2023 Turnaround Plan, we recognise the desire of all stakeholders for us to go faster. We are directing all our efforts into executing our plans, investing wisely, and employing cutting-edge technology in the right places to highlight risks and to enable us to respond more intelligently and proactively.”