Severn Trent Water Limited supplies drinking water to about 7.2 million people within a region that stretches from the Humber estuary in the north to the Bristol Channel in the south and from Llyn Clywedog in Wales in the west to Lincolnshire in the east. The region includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Gloucester, Leicester, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Stoke-on-Trent and Worcester. Boreholes, rivers and reservoirs provide 35%, 39% and 26% respectively of the Company's water. The Company distributed water from 202 treatment works through a network of 41,000 km of pipes and 718 service reservoirs.
Each year water companies are inspected. The 1995 inspection found that the Company's arrangements for sampling, analysis and reporting were generally very good and that treatment processes were generally satisfactory. Progress with improvement programmes was found to be generally satisfactory but six schemes out of thirty-seven involving the installation of treatment to deal with plumbo-solvency were not completed by the due date and further enforcement action was commenced but the Company completed the outstanding work very quickly and final enforcement order was not necessary. Eighteen recommendations for improvements in practices were made.
The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. 99.8% of the 318,423 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the 0.2% of tests that did not meet the standards some were for coliform bacteria. When these bacteria were detected, the cause was investigated and remedial action taken. The only other significant failures to meet the standards were for iron, lead, PAH and pesticides. For each of these substances the Company is carrying out an improvement programme. However, the Inspectorate has identified that a more extensive programme is required for PAH and is in the process of finalising a commitment from the Company to do this work.
The graph above shows the continued good water quality over the past five years. The Company, as it must, plans to improve the quality even further. It has given legally binding commitments to take steps to remove pesticides, minimise problems with lead and improve its water mains. Traces of pesticides can be present in the raw water source and the Company is installing treatment to remove them where appropriate. Lead arises largely because water picks up lead from consumers' lead pipes. The Company has installed treatment to reduce this tendency. Iron and PAH arise from old water mains and the Company is replacing or repairing these. Most of these improvements were completed by December 1995 and their full effect should be seen in the 1996 results. Work on the water mains and some pesticides treatment plants is continuing.
If you want more detailed information about the quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 0121 722 4000. |
