Southern Water is building a new treatment plant at its Falmer site to help ensure it can keep nitrates out of the water supply.
The company has submitted a planning application for the plant, saying that monitoring highlighted risks at three boreholes in the Lewes valley which supply water to Brighton.
After reporting the results to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), it was issued a series of notices to ensure no contaminants got into the water supply, with a specific requirement for nitrate removal treatment to be in place by the end of next year.
The planning application says: “Southern Water Services (SWS) operates a number of public water supply borehole sites in the Lewes Valley, which provide water into the network that supplies Brighton.
“They are named the Housedean and the Newmarket B, C and D borehole sites.
“The ‘wholesomeness’ and disinfection performance standards for water supplied to customers are prescribed in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016.
“Routine monitoring of the water quality of the Lewes Valley supply boreholes has identified that they are at risk of failing to be suitable to meet the water supply needs of the local population.
“They are at risk of exceeding allowed nitrate and turbidity concentration levels, as well as being at risk from groundwater flooding and bacteriological contamination, including cryptosporidium, which can cause significant health issues.
“At the Housedean borehole site, 1% of compliance samples have failed due to high nitrate levels.
“These operating issues were reported to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), the public water supply regulator for England and Wales.
“As a consequence, the DWI served a Regulatory Notice on Southern Water, which requires a number of measures to be put in place. The most significant measure being for nitrate removal treatment to be provided by 31 December 2025.
“Additional treatment plant is required to remove nitrates from the water and to ensure that the boreholes at Housedean, Newmarket B, C and D can be operated reliably at Water Resource Management Plan (WRMP) outputs, enabling them to supply wholesome water in accordance with Regulations 4 and 26 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016.”
Because the boreholes themselves are all in “visually sensitive locations” in the South Downs National Park, Southern Water wants to build the plant at Falmer instead.
As well as the plant building itself, it is asking permission from Brighton and Hove City Council to build a sodium hypochlorite dosing kiosk, an orthophosphoric acid dosing kiosk, a substation kiosk, a pumping station building, security fencing and gates.
All the buildings will be on brownfield within the Southern House site off the Lewes Road, south of the A27 and north of the railway line, just west of the Stanmer Court student housing.
It has also informed the council it is carrying out work to install underground pipework and cabling, a transformer, a standby generator fuel tank, contact tanks and chemical storage.
Prevention better than cure. Intensive land management pollutes the drinking water aquifer, which then has to be cleaned up, paid for by consumers’ water bills.
Surely the solution is to prevent the diffuse pollution in the first place. Change the agri-intensive practices to more environmentally sensitive management and farm for healthy food, soil and water.
I agree but unfortunately in the UK we have been used to cheap food and many farmers only make a profit through intensive farming.