Hereford

Example of investment in area:

• Weobly Wastewater Treatment Works - this year we will complete the upgrade of the works following a £3.3m investment to introduce phosphorous removal to the treatment process. This is part of a wider £64m investment plan in this Asset Management Period (2020-2025) to improve the river water quality of the River Wye and the River Lugg under the Water Framework Directive. This includes investment at Eign, Rotherwas, Kingstone & Madely, Leominster and Pontrilas WwTWs in the Hereford area alongside treatment works in the Mid Wales area.
• We have undertaken an extensive water quality modelling programme to identify what the main sources of phosphorus are in the river and where it is best to target our investment now and in the future. We are also supporting the work of the Wye Nutrient Management Board and Technical Advisory Group with evidence from our modelling and expertise on how we can best contribute to restoring the river to a favourable condition.
• We have also started work with Herefordshire Council at Luston to help them build their first constructed wetlands designed to offset the impact of new development on the sensitive river. This should be the first several sites we can support and we are delighted that not only will this approach protect the river from deterioration but it will also support increased biodiversity at the site.

Building upon the success of our Event Duration Monitor (EDM) installation programme (2019-2020) we are currently investing £42m across Wales in our Storm Overflow Assessment Framework (SOAF). Over the next 5 years (2020-2025) this programme will use data from the EDM sites to prioritise wastewater assets for investigation, with the aim to reduce both the number and volume of storm water discharges to the environment. This will improve both watercourse amenity value and water quality overall. Using data from the EDM sites, a further £15m is being spent around Wales on reducing the number of coastal discharges near to bathing and shellfish waters.

We are currently undertaking 19 investigations into a prioritised list of EDM trigger assets within the Hereford area.

A £19m investment has also been started to install Pass Forward Flow monitoring on over 300 of our wastewater treatment works to enable us to monitor our compliance against our flow permits and assess whether we’re fully utilising the treatment works full treatment capacity prior to spilling to storm. This investment will take up to 3 years to complete. Pass forward flow is the minimum flow that an asset is required to pass forward before spilling to storm to ensure it remains compliant.

Our 2021 data is below..