Southern Water are consulting on their proposal to take the final effluent from the Budds Farm Sewage Treatment Works (STW), undertake additional treatment at a new plant to be built at Broadmarsh in Havant, then discharge this recycled water into the Havant Thicket Reservoir to mix with the spring water. From there the water will;
- Be pumped to Farlington Water Treatment Works and on for distribution to Portsmouth Water customers
- Be pumped 40km to Otterbourne Water Treatment Works and on for distribution to Southern Water customers
- Flow to the Riders Lane stream, on to the Hermitage Stream and Langstone Harbour.
If you’re short of time and have already formed your own views on this proposal, then simply click here to bypass the detail and make your response. The public consultation is open until Tuesday 16th August.
The details follow:
At least five million litres of the recycled effluent will be discharged into the reservoir every day of the year, with the volume increasing to 15 million litres a day when they need more water or the reservoir is filling. The consultation confirms that in the future they may increase the volume discharged in to the reservoir to 60 million litres a day.
Note: 5Ml/d is equivalent to two Olympic sized swimming pools, 15Ml/d is 6 and 60 Ml/d is 24. An Olympic sized pool is 50m x25m x 2m, with a volume of 2500m3.(ML/d means million litres per day)
This is currently a proposal which is out for consultation. The project does not have to happen and this consultation provides you with the opportunity to have your say and influence where your drinking water should come from. There is time to make Southern Water reconsider their plans to find a better, more environmentally friendly solution.
It is important to understand that there will be no planning application to the Local Planning Authority for this scheme. Southern Water has already announced that they will not apply to the local Council for planning permission, instead they will apply for a Development Consent Order from the Secretary of State. This makes it even more important that local people have their say now while they have the chance.
This consultation is mainly about where the infrastructure needed would go. In Havant this includes;
- A new Water Recycling Plant (WRP) to be built on the dilute and disperse mixed waste landfill site ‘Site 72’, also known as Brockhampton West, at Broadmarsh, adjacent to Langstone Harbour.
- A new ‘High Lift Pumping Station’ constructed at the Broadmarsh site to power the 40km water transfer between Havant and Otterbourne.
- Two underground pipelines between the WRP and Budds Farm STW, below the Hermitage Stream.
- An open cut pipeline from the WRP on the Broadmarsh landfill to the reservoir via Park Lane and Middle Park Way (requiring road closures), or a 3.5km tunnel 15m (approx.) below Bedhampton and Leigh Park. Page 27 of the Southern Water consultation brochure shows the proposed routes.
- An open cut pipeline or tunnel from Broadmarsh towards the A3 and beyond along Portsdown Hill. Page 28 of the Southern Water consultation brochure shows the routes.
What you can do now
Now is the opportunity for you to comment on these plans, giving them your views on their effluent recycling proposal and explaining any concerns you have. If you think any of the open cut or tunnel routes are of concern in relation to the location of schools, medical facilities, shops etc. then make that known now. While the tunnel routes are indicated to be preferred on the maps provided by Southern Water, the open cut routes would be cheaper to construct, they can still be selected unless the public raise concerns about these routes now.
There will shortly be a second consultation by Southern Water on their long-term Water Resource Management Plan. This will set out the options for new water supplies they have considered, indicating that the Budds Farm effluent recycling scheme is their preferred solution in Hampshire. It is important that local people have their say on whether this is the best solution to meet our drinking water needs, or whether different sources of water should be considered first, which may be cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
For further detail to help you Understand the impacts of the Southern Water proposal, or for discussion of some of the Challenges to Southern Water that you might consider relevant when forming your own opinion, please take the menu options in the sidebar of this page or click the links in this paragraph.
A fourth page, Respond to this consultation, will take you to the Southern Water Consultation response pages, where you can review the questions before answering and also, by scrolling down, view the consultation documents and also browse an interactive map.
You do not have to answer all of the questions in the consultation, but it is very important that you answer questions ‘1’ and ‘2’ to tell Southern Water whether or not you support their proposal for effluent recycling. Note that there is an option against each question to add a few words explaining your reasons. The detail we’ve given may help you.
To go straight to the Southern Water response form, click here.
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