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Yorkshire Water has unveiled a £36 million programme to reduce storm overflows into the Pudsey Beck watercourse in the west of the county.
The funds will be distributed across six projects, including the creation of a 4.7-hectare integrated constructed wetland on a company-owned site previously earmarked for housing. The site, in Pudsey, will accommodate a minimum 25,000m3 of diluted wastewater from heavy or prolonged rainfall with plants in a series of cells treating it as it travels through the wetland via gravity. Pollutants and nutrients will be naturally broken down and taken up by the plants and bacteria within the wetland. Work is expected to start on the wetland in July 2024 and will take around three years to construct.
The other five projects are all water storage facilities with work earmarked to start on the first one next month.
Approximately 18,250m3 of additional storage will be added to the network to slow the flow of heavy or prolonged rainfall, which modelling indicates will reduce the number of storm discharges into Pudsey Beck by more than 20%.
Richard Stuart, director of capital delivery at Yorkshire Water, said: “We are committed to improving water quality in the rivers across our region. One of the key focuses is reducing storm overflows to make a real difference to water quality in our rivers.
“This project is a significant investment in the west Leeds and Bradford areas to improve water quality within Pudsey Beck. The additional storage and wetland we are building into the network will reduce the number of storm overflows significantly into the watercourse and is just part of a £568 million capital investment we are making across Yorkshire this year alone.”
The project is a collaboration between Yorkshire Water, Stantec, Kier, Arup, WSP, Mott MacDonald Bentley, Peter Duffy Limited, Galliford Try, Barhale, Tilbury Douglas, Leeds City Council and Bradford Metropolitan District Council.
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