South West Water has fixed last year’s highest spilling storm overflow as the company continues to reduce its environmental impact using new, targeted solutions.
Last year, Duloe, near Liskeard in Cornwall, was one of the highest spilling storm overflows in England. The shortage of storage and treatment capacity at the site meant it would regularly struggle to keep up with the amount of wastewater entering the site.
Determined to put it right, South West Water’s operational and engineering teams designed a solution that would increase treatment capacity and also ensure the site was not overwhelmed during prolonged spells of heavy rain.
Duloe’s storm weir has been upgraded, with a new mechanical filter also added to it, enabling more flow to go into the full treatment process and preventing wastewater from spilling or being tankered away.
The site will be improved further later this month when a new 30,000 litre balance tank – equivalent to around 100 full bathtubs - goes live.
This stores excess wastewater during storm conditions, then releases it back into the treatment works safely for full treatment when levels at the site allow.
Karl Stone, who joined South West Water as an apprentice in 2013, has been leading on this important project, described the problem they had to tackle as “huge,” explaining: “Duloe has been a target area for us as a priority site. The impact of our improvements has and will continue to be massive.
"The improved weir has increased flow into the works – stopping spills – and soon we will have added storage during storm conditions thanks to the new tanks, future-proofing the site even more.”
The teams are working to roll out similar solutions across South West Water’s other top spilling sites as a priority, part of overall plans to be the first water company to meet the government’s target of achieving less than 10 spills per overflow, per year by 2040.