Southern Water - Water resources plan

We publicised that Southern Water was consulting on their Draft Water Resources Management Plan for 2015-2040 between May and August this year.

The 963 responses from the public and new predictions on housing and population growth, which became available, have been reviewed and a Statement of Response has been published at http://swhaveyoursay.co.uk/wrmp/ which shows where changes have been made to the plan.

The plan includes an innovative way of planning to help prepare for the droughts of the future, which may be more severe than those experienced in the past.

Portsmouth flood alleviation scheme

Southern Water are investing £20 million to reduce the risk of sewer flooding in parts of Portsmouth and Southsea. 

Portsmouth was one of the first cities in the UK to have a dedicated sewer network. It was built during the Victorian age, when sewers were designed to take both rainwater and wastewater from people’s homes. 

These sewers are known as combined sewers but have the disadvantage that during storms there can be up to 25 times more water in them than there is during dry weather.

See how Southern Water are working to update the sewer system and reduce flooding in the future, at http://www.southernwater.co.uk/at-home/your-area/improvements-in-your-area/hampshire/portsmouth/

Eastney Pumping Station - Update

The following is an update letter from Southern Water about works at Eastney Pumping Station.

I am writing to update you on the ongoing work that Southern Water is carrying out to make improvements to Eastney Pumping Station. Representatives from Southern Water, including myself, met with local residents in June to listen to their concerns, in particular regarding odour and noise. Since then we have carried out a number of improvements and more work is scheduled to take place in the coming months.

Since the meeting we continued to review the performance of the existing odour treatment plant. We have reinforced a “closed door policy” at the pumping station to contain odours and have recently installed a new odour suppressant system at the site. Daily readings from the odour plant are logged and are made available to the City Council’s Environmental Health Officers.

We are carrying out an investigation to look at how we can reduce the amount of smoke emitted from the diesel pump exhausts. A successful trial has recently taken place and work is continuing. We have also fixed the weekly diesel pump testing to Thursday mornings to avoid unnecessary disruption to local residents at other times.

A survey has been completed that looked at noise from the site and we are now designing noise reduction measures. In addition to this we have started a programme to refurbish the three final effluent pumps, which pump the treated wastewater out to sea via the long sea outfall. This will help reduce noise and odour. This work has started but we can only work on one pump at a time, as the site must be able to operate effectively at all times.

In the coming months we will also be replacing the low level pumps to reduce noise and vibrations further and additional odour suppressant will be installed.

We are committed to making improvements at Eastney to ensure it works effectively and to ease the impact on residents living nearby. However it is a complex site and we cannot make these improvements overnight. It remains a priority for us and is an important part of our overall investment in Portsmouth over the next five years.

I hope that this has provided you with a useful update on the situation.  We will also be writing to local residents to keep them informed about our progress.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.

Yours sincerely

Stewart Garrett

Wastewater Area Manager (West)

Southern Water

Stewart.garrett@southernwater.co.uk