Southern Water have launched a new Spring 2025 consultation on their plan for effluent recycling in which they are looking for your views in two specific areas:
1 – Likely environmental water quality impacts of the Project on the Havant Thicket Reservoir, connected downstream water bodies (Riders Lane Stream & Hermitage Stream), Langstone Harbour, and the Solent.
2 – Proposed changes to the design of the Project which include modifications to the location of the infrastructure, plans for additional new infrastructure, as well as revisions to the position of construction compounds, road junction modifications and a new temporary access route from the A27 slipway at Havant for tunnel construction traffic. The location of the planned changes are highlighted on the map below.
The consultation ends at 11.59pm on 4 April 2025
Sadly, Southern Water have not listened to the public concerns and still propose to locate the Water Recycling Plant on the contaminated landfill at Broadmarsh, posing significant risks to Langstone Harbour.
If effluent recycling is to go ahead in the Havant area, we must continue to demand that the Water Recycling Plant be located at an alternative site.
For a summary of concerns about the likely adverse impact on water quality, click here to open the relevant page.
For detailed analysis of the design refinements and the concerns that you may wish to consider highlighting in your response to Consultation questions 2a & 2b, click here.
For suggestions about other concerns that you might consider highlighting in your response to Consultation Question 3, click here.
The Environmental Water Quality Report is very disappointing. It is dismissive of the pollution risks to the reservoir, streams, harbour and Solent. The report only considers a very small number of parameters, many of the contaminants of concern including pharmaceuticals and forever chemicals that are persistent in the environment are not considered in the assessment.
Other factors not adequately considered in the report include.
- The cumulative impact of day-on-day discharges into the reservoir and the Solent.
- The change in water chemistry in the reservoir and the impact it will have on flora and fauna, along with the adverse effect of increases in salinity and temperature.
- Accumulation of contaminants in plants, animals and sediments.
- The in-combination impacts with other existing sewage work discharges and future discharges from other planned effluent recycling plants at Littlehampton and Sandown.
We would urge you to have a look at the information provided here on the water quality report and share your concerns with Southern Water by feeding back to the consultation (Question 1).
The Southern Water Spring 2025 Consultation can be found at this link.
To head straight to the Southern Water Consultation document library, click here to open the relevant document folder.
Havant Matters 