In the second of two posts, we look at another of the effluent recycling plants that Southern Water has in its plans for the future, based on information published in the current WRMP consultation documents. The first post looked at Sandown, on the Isle of Wight, this post looks at Littlehampton, over the border in West Sussex which is proposed to deliver 15Ml/day recycled effluent to the Pulborough area by 2030-2031.
The proposed plant will take treated effluent from Southern Water’s Ford Wastewater Treatment Works as input to a new recycling plant using the same energy-intensive reverse osmosis process proposed for the Havant Budds Farm effluent recycling plant.
The company propose to construct a pipeline across the South Downs National Park to release the recycled effluent into the western River Rother for dilution with fresh river water to provide the necessary environmental buffer before the re-abstraction of an equivalent quantity of water, further downstream near Pulborough, for final water treatment at its Hardham Water Supply Works.
The proposal for the Ford Water Recycling Plant is still under development and Southern Water are considering several locations to release the recycled effluent into the western River Rother, both upstream and downstream of the drinking water abstraction point. The final design of the project will reflect the guidance from regulators, the requirements of the consent and the feedback Southern Water receive from customers and the community. Given that this particular river body is already has ‘poor ecological status’, adding the recycled effluent downstream of the drinking water abstraction point probably makes life easier for the company at the final water treatment plant.
There are further delays likely due to planning and consenting risks. The Environment Agency requires longer monitoring to allow discharge consents for this scheme and may not be able to fast track the scheme as it was not previously identified as a strategic resource option.
It is also likely that delays will also be caused by third party approvals covering planning, Environmental Impact Assessment and the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for the pipeline route which must cross the South Downs National Park.
[Update – 10-2025] – The reject stream of warm brine from the recycling plant along with debris from routine maintenance of the reverse osmosis membrane filters is expected to be pumped out through the Littlehampton long sea outfall, shown offshore in this map extract from Southern Water’s ‘Clean Rivers and Seas’ service.
Southern Water has abandoned an earlier plan for a desalination plant at Shoreham which would have used the same energy-intensive reverse osmosis filtration process and with changes to its supply forecast modelling, which now restricts the amount of water the company can abstract from its Pulborough WSW during drought, it has increased the proposed capacity of the Littlehampton effluent recycling plant.
Watch this space.
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