A major upgrade of a water treatment works, which will benefit more than 84,000 people in parts of Renfrewshire, has been completed.Scottish Water has invested £16m in improvements at the Muirdykes Water Treatment Works (WTW), which provides water for homes and businesses in Renfrewshire, including Johnstone, Howwood, Linwood, Elderslie, Kilbarchan, Quarrelton, Craigend and parts of the south of Paisley such as Glenburn and Foxbar.
The upgrade, which involved the installation of a new filtration building and process at the WTW near Howwood, will reduce the risk in the network of discoloured water caused by naturally-occurring manganese.
Although it is possible that localised discoloured water might occur following issues such as a burst water main, the risk of widespread discolouration throughout the network caused by manganese at Barcraigs reservoir near Howwood in the summer months has been substantially reduced following the WTW upgrade.
The completion of the project follows investment of £4m four years ago on more than 100 miles of water mains affected by discoloured water in Renfrewshire and the installation of a cutting edge piece of equipment called a Wears Resmix system at Barcraigs reservoir in 2012.
Mr Iain McMillan, Scottish Water’s senior project manager, said: “These improvements in the past few years have helped to tackle the problem of manganese and discoloured water in the Muirdykes WTW supply zone although they were unable to eliminate the risk, as we saw in August 2016 when there was discoloured water in some parts of the network.
“The completion of this most recent major investment at the WTW, and the installation of a new filtration process, will improve the robustness of our system and further reduce the risk of manganese and discoloured water in the longer-term.”
Joanna Peebles, Scottish Water’s regional community manager for the area, added: “Scottish Water aims to provide continuous clear and fresh drinking water to all our customers, wherever they live.
“While we cannot guarantee there will be no recurrence of manganese and discoloured water in the Muirdykes network, our upgrade of the WTW, in addition to the previous investment, will substantially reduce the risk and we know this will be welcomed by our customers in Renfrewshire.”
The upgrade of the WTW, which was carried out for Scottish Water by contractors Black & Veatch, started in September 2015.
The new secondary stage filtration process will remove oxydised manganese from the system before it goes into the supply zone and will be housed in a single-storey building constructed on the site of the WTW.
Scottish Water had given an undertaking to the Drinking Water Quality Regulator to provide an effective manganese removal system for this area.
The work was contained on Scottish Water’s site at the WTW and did not cause any disruption to normal services to customers or any road traffic issues, other than some additional site traffic using temporary access that was required.
Some trees on the WTW site, which had to be removed to enable the work to be carried out, will be replaced following the project.
More information on manganese can be obtained on a factsheet available on our website by visiting www.scottishwater.co.uk/you-and-your-home/your-home/customer-factsheets/9-manganese-explained