Leakage and Catchment Leakage and Catchment Management from the Utility Management from the Utility

PerspectivePerspective

Water Resource Efficiency, CopenhagenFriday 17 June 2011

Dr Jim MarshallPolicy and Business Adviser, Water UK

Expert, Eureau Commission 1

22

ContentsContents

•About Water UK and Eureau

•Making the link

•Catchment management

•Leakage

•Discussion points

333

Water UKWater UK

•Water UK is the industry association that represents UK statutory water and wastewater operators at national and European level.

•Bring people together to create better policies for the future of water

•Small team of 7 policy staff plus support

EUREAU

• European federation of national associations of drinking water suppliers and waste water services

• Provides sustainable water services to around 405 million European citizens

• Reflects the full diversity of the European water services sector

55

English Regulatory Structure

DWI

CC Water

EAEA / Natural England

Defra (lead govt

dept)Sewerage

Ofwat

Abstraction / storage

Distribution

ALSO:

Health Protection Agency

Environmental Health Officers

HSE

Civil Contingencies

66

Making best use of scare Making best use of scare resourceresource

• Reducing the water we take from abstraction• Increasing resources available for drinking

water

• Sustainability is driving the water industry – range of tools to manage the water that we have and the water we will have in the future

• Better resource management will mean more water available for all users with less carbon impact

77

Catchment ManagementCatchment Management

•Working with local farmers and landowners to take actions to protect groundwater and surface waters

•Benefit in that less material enters raw waters results in less treatment / purification by water utilities

•About establishing better ways of working – show benefits to all users / financial incentives

•Requires new ways of working by all stakeholders and regulators

88

Catchment management and UK govt aspirations

•Recently launched Defra White Paper on the Natural Environment:•Aims to set out a case for valuing the “public

goods” that the environment provides – water, soil and air

•White Paper talks of paying for environmental services by beneficiaries•Catchment management – work of water

companies and farmers seen as exemplar

99

Regulatory issues still to be worked out

•Approach clearly supported by drinking water and environmental regulators

•100+schemes funded in the current price setting period (£50m capital, £7.5m opex)

•Legally binding with monitoring and reporting requirements

•Proving effectiveness is key challenge – identifying benefits from catchment management v natural variation

•Key is working together – regulators / water companies – Catchment Management Forum

1010

1111

Example – MetaldehydeExample – Metaldehyde

•First detected in 2007 – applied by farmers in pellet form to control slugs and snails

•Metaldehyde Stewardship Group established (http://www.pelletsarepesticides.co.uk/)

•Providing best practice and guidance – practical advise•Sharing information, assessing effectiveness of control

measures, working with all stakeholders

•Decrease in concentrations seen – result of best practice or just a result of poor climate conditions for slugs

1212

1313

1414

Leakage – what is it?Leakage – what is it?

•Leakage is water lost from pipes transporting water – either as a result of older pipes that crack or hole or as a result of failure at joints / fittings

•Water lost from system is not lost from the environment•But maybe not where its needed, when its needed

•Management of leakage is therefore primarily economic rather than environmental•Saving costs / carbon of lost water new resources

1515

What is leakage ~2

•Emotive issue

•Concept of Economic Level of Leakage – ie fixing leaks if the cost of doing so is less than the cost of the water lost

•Sustainable does not mean zero leakage but minimised leakage

•Not an absolute measure – based on assumptions and estimates

• Metering and smart metering may improve data

1616

Methods of leakage control

Speed and quality of

repair

Active Leakage Detection

Pressure Management

Infrastructure Renewal

Leakage

1717

1818

Influences on Leakage

1919

Holistic view of Supply/Demand

Leakage Target

Supply/Demand Balance

Water Use Model

Water UseTarget

Practical Achievement

and Cost

Leakage Model

ExternalInfluence

Water Abstracted

ExternalInfluence

ExternalInfluence

ExternalInfluence

Apparent LossTarget

Apparent Loss Model

©Trow/Pearson

Practical Achievement

and Cost

2020

Eureau on leakageEureau on leakage

•Eureau developing a leakage position paper – hopefully agreed this summer

•About identifying that addressing leakage is a key part of sustainably managing supplies – just one of the tools to do this

•Leakage measurement should be based on international frameworks – taking account of environmental, social and economic factors - such as the IWA Water Balance model

•Leakage should be assessed locally at member state level taking account of regional factors

2121

Discussion pointsDiscussion points

•Paying farmers to prevent pollution – where / who / how? WFD establishes a Polluter Pays Principle – is catchment management a pay the polluter or is it a pollution prevention? Can CAP help?

•Leakage reduction is just part of a reduction of wastage. Water efficiency and water re-use (domestic and commercial) have a role. But should leakage be assessed on economic terms alone – how far can economics go in determining the true cost of leakage to the environment and society?

• Innovation – catchment management is exemplar of innovation, leakage detection and reduction is innovative – what else can be done?

Example dataExample data

Wessex WaterWessex Water

MetaldehydeMetaldehyde

Durleigh Reservoir Metaldehyde

• Intensive catchment visits (Wessex Water and EA)

• Monitoring

• Financial contributions to farmers switching to non-metaldehyde molluscicides (e.g. Sluxx)

Durleigh Metaldehyde

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

01 S

ep 0

801

Oct

08

31 O

ct 0

830

No

v 08

31 D

ec 0

8

30 J

an 0

901

Mar

09

31 M

ar 0

9

01 M

ay 0

931

May

09

30 J

un

09

30 J

ul

09

30 A

ug

09

29 S

ep 0

9

29 O

ct 0

928

No

v 09

29 D

ec 0

9

28 J

an 1

027

Feb

10

29 M

ar 1

0

29 A

pr

10

29 M

ay 1

028

Ju

n 1

0

28 J

ul

1028

Au

g 1

027

Sep

10

27 O

ct 1

026

No

v 10

27 D

ec 1

0

26 J

an 1

125

Feb

11

27 M

ar 1

1

27 A

pr

11

Met

ald

ehyd

e (u

g/l

)

Pesticide PCV level (0.1 μg/l)

Active Catchment Management

What works best? Wessex / Wagrico / ADAS

• Wessex Water approach was of voluntary engagement

• 2005 – 2008 WAgriCo project – EA/NFU/ADAS/WW

– Eight Wessex Water catchments

– Payments to farmers to do different measures

– Fertiliser spreading

– Cover crops

Example dataExample data

Severn Trent Water Severn Trent Water

NitratesNitrates

The Problem

• Winter peaks in 2000, 2003 and 2004• NO3 spike up to 90 mg/l in 2003/4• NO3 spike up to 50 mg/l in 2000

Rufford NO3 Concentrations

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

01/01/1980 01/01/1984 01/01/1988 01/01/1992 01/01/1996 01/01/2000 01/01/2004 01/01/2008 01/01/2012

Date

NO

3 m

g/l

BH3 BH4 BH5

WHY.......

• Investigation showed the peaks to be cyclical,

• Related to the rearing of pigs in fields adjacent to the boreholes.

• Pigs managed in 4 blocks with pigs being in 1 block every 2 in 8 years.

• The fields around the BH make up 1 block

• Pigs were in the fields next to the BHs in 2000, 2001, 2004 and at their most intensive (weaners) 1998 - 2000

High nitrates due to pigs in adjacent fields

WHAT was done…

• Initially a new nitrate treatment plant was installed, enabling STW to abide by Drinking Water Standards.

• Due to this being a costly solution, STW started looking into alternative solutions so that they could:– Cut operating cost– Reduce the need for replacement treatment plants in the future

• The solution chosen was based on Catchment Management…

• The STW Catchment Management team worked with Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) and Natural England to organise a meeting with the relevant farmer.

• Worked with the farmer to move pigs from adjacent fields.• Farmer was compensated through EU agricultural environment land

payment scheme.• He has now entered into a 10 year HLS agreement to put fields to pasture

with field buffer strips and management for bees and flowers.