MINUTES of the 65th Forum meeting of 3rd October 2018
Please note that for older reports some links will be to sites that are no longer active.
| Barrie Howe | Environment Agency (Chairman) |
| Steve Bungay | Helix ECL / FWR Wastewater Co-ordinator (Secretary) |
| Oliver Grievson | Z-Tech Control Systems |
| Mike Hutchins | CEH |
| Gordon Jones | FWR |
| Stephen Palmer | Stantec |
| Peter Pearce | Farmiloe Fisher |
| Ana Soares | Cranfield University |
| Peter Vale | Severn Trent Water |
| Andrew Wheatley | Loughborough University |
The meeting started with roundtable introductions.
The Wastewater Innovation Forum areas of focus are moving slightly to include Drainage Wastewater Management Plans, Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment, and the Circular Economy for Water. The autumn meeting was run in conjunction with a CIWEM Biosolids Workshop. There were two technical presentations as part of the Forum meeting, and then a further four presentations as part of the CIWEM workshop. Members of both the Wastewater Innovation Forum and CIWEM’s Wastewater and Biosolids Panel attended both sessions with record attendance for both meetings.
2.1 Urban Pollution Management Manual (UPM 3.1)
The FWR first published the UPM Manual as a hard copy book on 1995. The UPM manual and associated standards were adopted and used by regulators as guidance and best practice for planning improvements of intermittent wet weather discharges.
In 1998 the book was updated to UPM2 and was published by the FWR as a CD. In 2012 UPM2 was updated to UPM3 and became web based, and accessed from the FWR’s website.
In 2018 there have been extensive updates to UPM3 (Section 2 – Regulatory Aspects, and Section 5 – Construct UPM Tools). UPM3 (now UPM 3.1) is still available free of charge from the FWR’s website: http://www.fwr.org/UPM3/index.htm
2.2 ROCKs
There has been approval from the Council for a new ROCK for Anti-microbial resistance. SB has chased up Prof Jason Snape. AstraZeneca have have just produced a guidance document on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. However, we are still waiting for a response from Jason Snape.
It was discussed about possible ROCKs on the Circular Economy in Water, and Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment.
We still need to give consideration to publicising the ROCKs – possible article in WWT?
Action
- SB to continue to chase Jason Snape about an AMR ROCK.
- BH/SB to take away an action to think about publicity.
- Stephen Palmer to write a proposal for Circular Economy in Water ROCK.
- Ana Soares to write a proposal for a ROCK on Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment
2.3 Briefing Notes / Newsletter
The lead article in the May Newsletter was by Lucinda Gilfoyle, titled “Got a Spare £600 Million? How Anglian Water is working to tackle the ‘slugs’ of the pesticide world” and Wastewater Matters had an article on Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.
2.4 Website
There were no changes to the website other than the addition of the details of speakers from our last meeting.
2.5 Social Media
The forum twitter account @F4WaterResearch is slowly getting more followers. From the previous meeting the number of followers had increased from 246 to 270.
Wikipedia
Stephen Palmer gave a brief report on the requirements for creating a Wikipedia page.
From previous meeting:
NO Don Ridgers has reported that Water UK have reduced their funding of European Standards. NO to contact Don about a possible article in the Newsletter.
Spring Ana Soares, Cranfield University – Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment, Nutrient Recovery Other suggestions required.
18 – 21st November Nutrient Removal and Recovery Conference 2018;nbsp;Closing the Loop (IWA – Brisbane) 19 – 23rd November Micro 2018; Fate and Impact of Microplastics: Knowledge, Actions and Solutions (Lanzarote) 21 – 22nd November WWEM 2018: 8th International Conference and Exhibition on Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring (Telford) 28th November 6th UK Wastewater Network Conference (Cranfield University) 4th December Wastewater Treatment Intensification (CIWEM) 5th December Water Resources: Are we fit for 2050? (CIWEM) 12th December Anaerobic Digestion: Is there viability beyond incentives (Aqua Enviro) 29th January WWT Wastewater 2019 Conference and Exhibition (Birmingham)
The total membership is currently 36. Of this, there are 19 active members and 17 corresponding members. Of the active members, two water companies, three universities, two consultancies, two research consultancies, two regulators, and three independent consultants, are represented.
There were 24 attendees for the technical presentations (including speakers and CIWEM Wastewater and Biosolids Panel):
FWR
Steve Bungay, Oliver Grievson, Barrie Howe, Gordon Jones, Dr Stephen Palmer, Dr Ana Soares, Pete Vale, and Andrew Wheatley.
CIWEM
Sarah Anderton, Steve Bungay, Rachel Edgington, Karyn Georges, Oliver Grievson, Barrie Howe, Dr Stephen Palmer, Pete Pearce, Lee Slater, Dr Stephen Smith, Matt Smyth, Tom Taylor, Pete Vale, Peter Winter, and Niki Roach (remotely).
CIWEM Guests
Matt Davis, Gary Strange, Matt Taylor.
FWR Speakers
Dr Michael Hutchins, Gian Illari
CIWEM Speakers
Steve Bungay, Tom Taylor, Chris Thornton, Dr David Tompkins.
As normal the presentations will be available at the FWR website http://www.fwr.org/wransom1.html along with an archive of presentations from past meetings.
Managing Water Resources to Best Protect Water Quality
Dr Michael Hutchins – Water Quality Modeller, CEH
If summers become appreciably drier, as is likely, areas of growing population (e.g. in south-east England) will be increasingly at risk of running out of water in the next 30 years. It may become very difficult to meet the needs of people whilst also protecting the river environment for wildlife. As water quality suffers in drier conditions, water treatment costs may increase markedly. River basin managers are seeking increasingly innovative ways of tackling these problems, beyond re-use of wastewater, additional reservoir storage, desalination and water transfers.Mike’s presentation looks at the problem of balancing water demands with protection of river water quality.
Overview of Drainage Wastewater Management Plans (DWMP)
Commissioned by Water UK in collaboration with Defra, Welsh Government, Ofwat, EA, Natural Resources Wales, Consumer Council for Water, ADEPT and Blueprint for Water, the objective of Drainage Wastewater Management Plans (DWMP) are to provide a long term planning framework for drainage and wastewater. DWMP has broad support from government, regulators, water and sewerage companies and consumer bodies on the UK. DWMP builds on Ofwat Drainage Strategy Framework, and incorporates the tools and frameworks being completed as part of the wider 21st Century Drainage Programme. Tom’s presentation will provide an overview of DWMP.
Tom Boichot – Practice Manager, Atkins