Scottish Water is making a significant investment in the Innerleithen area of the Scottish Borders. In January works to construct a new £3.6m water treatment plant will begin, offering cleaner, fresher water to communities living throughout the Tweed Valley.
Works will include a new water treatment works (WTW) further up the hill, away from the existing floodplain. The new WTW will comprise a membrane plant with chemical dosing facilities that will remove naturally occurring elements and any cryptosporidium organisms from the raw water supply. Following this, the existing storage tank will be used to hold the drinking water from the treatment works before it is supplied to the local community.
Main contractors for the project are Ross-shire Engineering and the scheme has been designed by URS Scott Wilson.
Malcolm Miller, Construction Manager at Scottish Water Solutions 2 Limited, said: “Works are going well so far and everyone is looking forward to seeing the works begin on site. All of the consents are in place in terms of planning, land ownership and all of the relevant environmental bodies. We have also made a significant effort to engage with the local community.”
The single storey building is expected to be 43m long by 13m wide and will be clad in profile sheeting. Internally, the building will comprise a control room, welfare facilities, toilets, a small laboratory and a large plant room floor containing all of the process equipment.
External landscaping will include tree planting, mounding and an open water course. In addition, the existing dry stone walls have been retained and mature planting will be retained around the perimeter of the site.
The project has proved challenging in terms of the design, as Malcolm Miller explained:
“There have been some difficulties in terms of integrating the building into the landscape, as it is a fairly large building in an exposed location. With regards to the design, we have tried to create the impression of an agricultural building that blends into surrounding landscape. In simple terms, we have deliberately made it ‘uninteresting’ to look at.
“The new plant complies with Scottish Water standards and has incorporated numerous environmental considerations. In particular, the building has a lower carbon footprint and we aim to minimise the amount of power used for pumping and process work. We have also met the operational and planning requirements to avoid excess clutter on the site.”
Pentair
Pentair X-Flow, formally under the brand name Norit, develops and supplies membrane technology to the municipal and industrial markets. Pentair Clean Process Technologies UK are the UK sales and service operation for the group. The company’s involvement on the Innerleithen WTW project was providing the core technology and supporting ancillary equipment, which acts as a barrier for Cryptosporidium.
Country Manager Steve Weston said: “We supply technologies, solutions and service to the water industry, both industrial and municipal. This includes drinking water, waste water and process water applications.”
He added: “We have over 700 mega litres per day of installed UF capacity in the UK. More than 60 mega litres of this capacity is in Scotland where we have a number of sites commissioned providing drinking water to the local population.”
Pentair Clean Process Technologies also supports the Food and Beverages industry with various forms of membrane solutions, as well as hygienic valves under the Sudmo banner and CO2 recovery systems and instrumentation from Haffmans.
