Yorkshire Water is investing £380,000 at Old Ellerby wastewater treatment works to reduce storm overflow discharges into a tributary of Kelwell Drain by 70%.
The work is being completed by Mott MacDonald Bentley and will include the construction of a new manhole at the treatment works and replacing 41 metres of sewer to provide additional storage at the site.
Once completed, the work will deliver 6.9m3 of additional storage, which will slow the flow of wastewater and surface water during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall. This will reduce the likelihood of storm overflows needing to operate and once the rainfall event has passed the stored wastewater will be treated by the works as usual.
By adding more effective storage solutions upstream of the treatment works, the additional storm water from rainfall events can be better managed. This will result in a 70% reduction of discharges from the overflow at Old Ellerby.
Omair Khan, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said:
“Our assessment of Old Ellerby wastewater treatment works found that many of the discharges are short in their duration. As a result, we believe increasing storage available on site will significantly reduce the frequency of the discharges from the site during rainfall events, helping to improve water quality in Kelwell Drain.
“This is just one project as part of a £180m investment across Yorkshire to reduce storm overflow discharges into the region’s watercourses by April 2025. We are committed to improving water quality and reducing the impact of our operations, to enable Yorkshire’s environment and wildlife to thrive. In the longer term we are planning our largest ever environmental investment between 2025 and 2030, which includes more than £1 billion earmarked to reduce the operation of overflows across our region.”
