Southern Water screens £80m wastewater project

London -- Southern Water’s new £80-million wastewater treatment works for the Margate and Broadstairs catchment area is under construction to meet the stringent European Urban Waste Water Directive. As well as bringing extensive environmental benefits to the area, it will help local beaches meet the European Bathing Water Directive and boost the tourist trade.

The works are being built next to the existing Weatherlees WTW near Sandwich, which already separately treats wastewater from Ramsgate, Deal and Sandwich. The new site will also take wastewater pumped from Foreness Point and North Foreland WTW via nearly 15 km of new underground pipeline, and will treat 20 million litres of wastewater generated daily by the 93,000 Margate and Broadstairs residents and visitors.

Some of the untreated wastewater from particular areas has a high rag content, which needs to be removed before the full treatment process. The project team, therefore installed four SludgeScreen screening units from Hydro International to protect the treatment process from excessive incoming rag.
“The screens operate with three screening and one on standby to minimise any downtime. They are installed on a single concrete plinth, over skips which collect the rag for disposal; their small footprint is ideal for a modern treatment works,” said Alan Coles, project engineer at consulting engineers Black and Veatch.
The project is being implemented by a joint venture consortium between Black and Veatch for design and installation, M&E and process engineering and Costain Construction for civils work including pipelines and tunnelling.

Currently wastewater from Margate and Broadstairs is screened to remove grit and other debris, before being discharged through long sea outfalls at Foreness Point and North Foreland.