5 ways we take a sustainable approach to our reed bed work

We understand the crucial role a well-maintained reed bed can play in water treatment. We also acknowledge that reed beds are valuable ecosystems that provide a habitat for various plant and animal species.

That’s why maintaining them requires a sustainable approach, too, to ensure their health and effectiveness while enhancing their environmental performance. Here are five examples of sustainable practices we use to manage and maintain reed beds, which often challenge traditional methods offered within our industry.

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Improving treatment processes through desludging settlement lagoons

Desludging settlement lagoons

Our client

Our client is a non-departmental public body of the UK government.

The location is a mine water treatment scheme in South Yorkshire.

The two settlement lagoons – with an 11,000m3 capacity – form part of the mine water treatment process.

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7 reasons why reed bed maintenance is essential

Reed beds are natural filtration systems crucial for conserving water quality. However, like any other wastewater asset, they must be regularly looked after to do their job correctly.

Unfortunately, reed beds are often neglected until a problem occurs, such as a pollution incident.

Alastair Pentland, Environmental Operations Manager at Oren Environmental, has outlined the seven reasons why routine reed bed maintenance is essential.

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Severn questions with Ian Quarton at Severn Trent services

Suffolk-based Ian Quarton has been working at Severn Trent Services since 2019. He started as a jet vac driver and has since progressed to become a mechanical engineer.

In this interview, he speaks about his passion for continuous learning, his unwavering determination to fix things, and his pride in working in the water industry.

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Severn questions with Matt Booth at Severn Trent Services

Matt Booth is an instrumentation maintenance technician at Severn Trent Services, working in the mechanical, electrical, instrumentation control, and automation (MEICA) team.

He’s been with Severn Trent Services since 2021, lives in Halesowen, and outside of work, loves to ride his bike to the nearby velodrome, where he also coaches sessions for other cyclists.

We spoke to him about his role and how he and his colleague, Ash Adam, are helping to transform how water and wastewater assets are managed going forward.

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The common challenges that arise from refurbishing reed beds

Despite playing a vital role in water treatment, reed beds are often built and forgotten assets. Consequently, if any issue arises because a reed bed has been neglected – such as discharge consent failures or watercourse pollution incidents – proactive maintenance may not be possible, resulting in a complete refurbishment.

The reed bed refurbishment process can be expensive and lengthy, requiring several months of preparation beforehand and time to commission it afterwards once the work’s done.

To avoid refurbishment, reed beds should be routinely maintained over their lifespan – like any other water or wastewater asset. Otherwise, reed bed owners or managers face several unwieldy challenges that go hand in hand with a reed bed refurbishment.

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Bramble Woods – Case Study

For several years STS has worked with not-for-profit social enterprise e50k which is run by military community members.  Bramble Woods is a 3.5-acre woodland in Catterick, North Yorkshire which provides service families with a fantastic outdoor space away from a military environment to help overcome the potential issues including access to education and employment, social isolation, and physical and mental health challenges.  The site is not only a beautiful woodland retreat allowing people to connect to nature, but it’s also home to many community events.

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The multifaceted role of a reed bed and why maintenance is key

It’s important to remember that regular maintenance is crucial for any reed bed to work – whether it’s a natural or engineered reed bed. This is because reed beds play a critical role in the water treatment process.

The Oren Environmental team is on a mission to help educate the industry about the importance of taking care of reed beds and the benefits that come from looking after them.

Alastair Pentland, Environmental Operations Manager at Oren Environmental, said:

“I think that because reed beds are situated in the natural environment, they can often be overlooked and their role underestimated. Not only do they prevent water courses from pollution, but they also provide a home to countless plants and species.”

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New software to help maintain industry-leading leakage performance

Severn Trent Services, specialists in water and wastewater asset management, will start to use Waternet software in 2024 – provided by RPS (a Tetra Tech company) – a leading provider of consulting and engineering services worldwide.

Waternet software is designed to provide a more efficient way for us to monitor, report, and charge for our customer’s water consumption. It will replace multiple existing systems and dramatically reduce the time it takes to collect and analyse water volumes.

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