One United Kingdom company, Ovarro, has developed a cloud-based main burst detection system to help water companies keep pace with tightening regulations.
The UK government has left water companies in England in no doubt that they need to do more to protect the environment from pollution. Environment minister Rebecca Pow has said the nation’s Water Services Regulation Authority must ensure that the water industry is doing more to protect the environment — and that water quality was “an absolute priority”.
A government strategic policy statement, published on 2 February 2022, sets out its priorities for the regulator over the next five years and calls for measures to improve monitoring and reporting of pollution incidents, reduce harm from storm overflows, and tackle run-off from agriculture.
The statement came days after the prosecution of a UK water company in January 2022, following a pollution incident back in 2017. The company was fined £233,000 ($311,000 USD) for the incident, which saw wastewater discharged from a rising main into a watercourse over four days.
Rising mains
Rising main sewers are high-risk, critical assets — but, with many in the UK ageing and becoming more vulnerable to bursts, proactive maintenance and investment may no longer be enough to keep up with the rate of deterioration.
In October 2021, another water company launched a five-day emergency operation, deploying tankers and clean-up teams to limit customer impact, after a burst rising main flooded a residential area.
Given the mounting customer and stakeholder pressure and water companies’ own commitments to cut pollutions, it is unsurprising they are working with the supply chain to develop innovative solutions.
Ovarro’s example of a cloud-based early warning product, named BurstDetect, was developed in collaboration with UK utilities in direct response to the urgent challenge to reduce pollutions. The tool detects rising main bursts with potential to cause pollution incidents.
Through a dashboard, it provides an overview of pumping station status and both ongoing and historical events. If data suggests a potential burst, an alert is sent to control rooms often within an hour of occurrence
This ensures users can make swift, informed decisions and quickly allocate resources to reduce environmental impact. Such early action can prevent the escape of sewage and resulting environmental damage, ensuring companies fulfil their environmental obligations and avoid fines, regulatory penalties and prosecutions and long-term reputational damage.
Early warning technology can be applied to nearly all pumping stations — even those with just basic pump status monitoring — and often requires little additional hardware. The technology can accept data at a range of monitoring frequencies, with software that can then identify any abnormal pumping station behavior.
