Why are reed beds often built and forgotten?

A reed bed is a nature-based solution for treating water. It can be used in the final stage of the wastewater treatment process, ensuring water is ‘polished’ before being discharged into watercourses and the wider environment.

However, a reed bed system can often be neglected despite its essential role, leading to suboptimal performance and potentially harmful environmental consequences. But why does this happen?

We spoke to Ross Brown, Sales Manager at Oren Environmental, who explained why reed beds are often built and forgotten.

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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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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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