Investment at Bournemouth Water's treatment works begins

The investment into Bournemouth Water’s sites at Alderney and Knapp Mill will upgrade them to state-of-the-art technology.

Construction at the Alderney water treatment works in Francis Avenue, Bournemouth, got underway earlier this year, and is scheduled to finish in 2025.

Planning permission for the upgrades at the Knapp Mill site in Christchurch was recently given by BCP Council, which will see work completed by 2026.

Richard Stanbrook, director of drinking water services at the business, said these upgrades will give the company ‘sustainability’.

He told the Daily Echo: “We produce high quality water, however what it now will mean is it will meet even more exacting standards.

“[It will] make the quality of the water sustainable again for another 50 years. It’s such a brand new, robust technology that blocks viruses and blocks bacteria.”

Richard described the process that the water will take, from the River Avon to the taps at homes and businesses across Bournemouth.

“[It’s] pumped over to Longham, to our Longham lakes. [It] settles in those lakes, goes into pressure filters, which are basically large filters to take out the solids in the water,” he said.

“That water then comes from Longham up the road, here, up to the top of the hill onto the sand filters, which are a biological treatment and a fine filtration process to the water.”

Currently, water at this stage is treated and then distributed to the company’s network.

But, in the new system, water will have the chemical ozone added to break down dissolved organic compounds, before it goes through cutting edge new ceramic membranes to further filter it.

“Whatever is left in that water from the filters will go through these very fine membranes and then go through granulated activated carbon to get rid of more pesticides and such like,” Richard said.

“After all of that, it gets dosed with chlorine, to kill off anything that is remaining. It stands for a little while, then chlorine is taken out.

“It is then stored in large tanks on site, the service reservoirs on site, and then pumped into Bournemouth.”

These new processes will also stop any discoloration that can be seen in tap water after heavy rainfall.

“This will eliminate that, this will take the colour out of the water,” Richard said.

“The water that we produce at the moment is safe to drink, robust in its quality, but it does have that tinge of yellow or green after heavy rain.

“Our customers, come 2026, will have that barrier but we are already putting in processes next year, we’re putting ozone in next year to break that down as well to improve the colour.”

The company, which was founded in 1863, had always been a small, independent private provider, until it was bought by the Pennon Group in 2015.

This has allowed this investment into the area’s infrastructure, with £113m going towards the Alderney site, and £85m to the Knapp Mill works.

The upgrades will mean fewer chemicals are used, as well as generating less waste and so fewer operating costs, keeping bills low.

Richard added: “All of us are guardians to what we do, and we are going to be leaving both these sites in really strong position with regards to water quality for our customers.”