Issue - meetings
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Meeting: 19/07/2023 - Cabinet Panel on the Environment (Item 73)
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public, as well as presentations from external organisations, including:
· Thames Water
· Herts Middlesex Wildlife Trust
Decision:
Presentations were received by the Cabinet Panel from organisations including:
· Thames Water
· Anglian Water
· Affinity Water
· Herts Middlesex Wildlife Trust
Minutes:
Audio recording – 11:40
Tim Beech from Thames Water gave a presentation with slides and advised:
· Water treatment was a biological process which involved filtering effluent and removing solids, with samples taken at the final stage before being fed back into the environment.
· Storm tanks were filled if the inlet flow was too high. If the storm tanks reached capacity, it would discharge water back into the environment.
· Causes of overflows included infiltration, misconnection, inundation, physical damage, dual manholes and unauthorised connection.
· The water industry was a cause of poor water quality, along with other factors such as agriculture, urban and transport.
· The River Health Action Plan aimed to discharge high quality effluent that met required standards and eliminate pollutants. Working collaboratively with partners was also part of the action plan.
· An interactive overflow map had been introduced to document the position and performance of treatment works.
· There were six treatment works in North Hertfordshire, with upgrades planned to be completed in 2024.
· £9million was being investment across 3 ‘Smarter Water Catchments’ to test innovative ways to manage water environments. It was hoped more catchments would be invested in from 2025.
· Long term investment was needed over a 25-year plan to reach the goal of higher quality water.
· There was a catchment strategic plan for Hertfordshire, which broke down the level of investment needed by factors such as flood risk and climate change.
· The Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) would be used in the next business plan to ask for a substantial amount of funding.
N.B. Councillor Dominic Griffiths joined the meeting at 19:54
In response to the questions from Councillor Steve Jarvis, Mr Beech advised that the objective was to produce higher quality effluent. Weston Treatment Works was not a priority site as there were other sites that had more storm overflow.
Councillor Steve Jarvis commented that it seemed that treatment works in rural areas had more spillage problems than treatment works in urban settlements. Mr Beech commented that it was likely to due to the rural works being more susceptible to infiltration, and urban works tend to have bigger capacity and infrastructure.
Joe Stack from Anglian Water gave a presentation with slides and advised:
· Water Recycling involved the return of wastewater to the environment.
· Strategic goals for Anglian included achieving environmental and social prosperity across the network, creating a sustainable future for the region and to achieve significant improvement and resilience to drought and flooding.
· The Get River Positive Campaign was launched in March 2022 in partnership with Severn Trent, with goals including ensuring storm overflows do not harm rivers and to be open about the performance of the organisation.
· £811million was being invested as part of the Water Industry Natural Environment Programme over the next five years.
· Agriculture, urban developments, non-native species and misconnections all had an impact on river water quality.
· Factors that affect sewer operations included debris, fats and grease, misconnections and root ingress.
· Aims included eliminating serious pollutants by 2025, with less serious ... view the full minutes text for item 73