A PIONEERING new facility is being built in Warwickshire to help the region’s water supplier clean up its act – and local rivers.
Severn Trent has started construction of the UK’s first ozone wastewater treatment plant in Frankton, near Rugby.
The £78million plant features huge gas cylinders which hold ozone gas to treat wastewater – removing algae, iron, manganese, micro-pollutants, pharmaceuticals and other contaminants.
The company – which has been fined a total of £3.5million since 2021 for its sewage discharges into waterways – says the treated water returning to local rivers will be of the highest standard, and help it to create bathing rivers in the county.
As part of its Green Recovery programme, the company is planning to create two further plants – one in Shropshire and another in Warwickshire, planned to be in operation by next March.
Severn Trent Project Manager Wilfred Denga said: “The use of ozone to treat wastewater has the potential to truly change the future of wastewater treatment and this marks a really exciting step in our programme.
“The ozone treatment takes treatment one step further and makes the water as clean as possible – helping us with our ambition to create bathing rivers.”
The company says it will have moved sections of the River Leam and River Teme closer towards bathing quality standard by 2025, and also provided ‘wider benefits’ to the River Avon.
Mr Denga added: “This is a really exciting moment in the programme, that sees us getting closer and closer to our goals and helping to do our bit in creating rivers that people can enjoy.”
According to data on the ‘Top of the Poops’ website, in 2023 Severn Trent Water was responsible for nearly 1,800 sewage overflows across the constituencies of Rugby, Warwick and Leamington, and Stratford – into the Rivers Anker, Avon, Swift, Leam, Alne, Arrow, Stour and Dene, and a number of brooks.
Severn Trent said it was investing £450million to cut sewage overflows, with around 55 project in Warwickshire underway designed to boost river health and cut spills.
The company added it would invest a further £300million on overflow improvements in Warwickshire by 2050.
