Latest News

Latest News

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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Potential fines for polluters who’ve neglected their reed beds

In December 2023, the government announced it was lifting the cap on the £250,000 fine limit for environmental polluters and expanding the list of offences businesses can be fined for. This applies to any organisation that holds an environmental permit.

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Closed Recirculating Water Systems: Monitoring the health of your system by sampling

Welcome back to our series on closed recirculating water systems. Last time out we looked at the maintenance required to keep closed systems healthy and working efficiently which included the addition of speciality chemicals such as corrosion and scale inhibitors. We finished on the point that where using these chemicals it is essential to maintain a specific ‘reserve’ or concentration of these products within the water system and to monitor this requires samples to be taken, but how many, where from and at what frequency? When considering the testing can on-site analysis be sufficient or do the samples require analysis in a laboratory setting?

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Legionella Control In Healthcare Facilities: Aqualytix takes care of the care sector

Legionella Control In Healthcare Facilities

The Aqualytix team, experts in water treatment and Legionella control, often work in healthcare settings. Legionella control in healthcare facility environments require our people to follow procedures not typically encountered in other sectors.

Razvan Radu, Business Development Manager at Aqualytix, says: “It’s an honour to work with organisations who care for those who are unwell and require medical support.

“The way we care for healthcare staff, patients, and visitors is by controlling the risk of Legionella bacteria developing in their water systems.

“But to do that, we must adapt our working practices to follow special policies designed to protect everyone onsite.”

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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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