Agenda item

(1)       Lee Dance, Head of Water Resources at South East Water gave a presentation. The accompanying slides are contained within the electronic agenda papers on the KCC website. 

 

(2)       Mr Dance began his presentation by saying that South East Water had a statutory duty to prepare a Water Resources Management Plan and a Drought Plan at least once every five years.  The consultation draft of the 2019 Water Resources Management Plan had recently been published. It would cover a period of sixty years, instead of the usual 25 years.

 

(3)       Mr Dance said that South East Water supplied 2.2m customers and that its supply area was divided into a western region in Hampshire and Berkshire, and an eastern region in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.   South East Water was not the sole water supplier in these counties.  It was in fact part of a patchwork of companies carrying out this role.  Affinity Water was the supplier in South Kent, and Southern Water supplied the Medway Towns.  

 

(4)       South East Water supplied about 520 m litres of water every day, increasing to over 650m litres per day in hot dry periods.  This water came from groundwater sources (73%), surface water (19%) and neighbouring companies (8%).  The latter statistic was the largest for any water company in the UK, demonstrating good integrated working with its neighbours.

 

(5)       Mr Dance then gave a breakdown of water resources in various parts of Kent. In Ashford, 100% was supplied by 16 groundwater sources. In Maidstone, 12% came from Bewl Water which was owned by Southern Water.   The remainder (78%) came from groundwater.   In Cranbrook there was an even split between Bewl Water (49%) and groundwater sources (51%).  Tunbridge Wells was 100% groundwater dominated.

 

(6)       Mr Dance moved on to describe the creation of the draft Water Resources Management Plan.  This had been developed according to set guidelines from the environmental and economic regulators (Environment Agency and Ofwat).  The draft Plan explained the chosen methodology and had been prepared with input from customers, communities, other water providers and stakeholders.

 

(7)       The challenges addressed in the document took account of future population and housing growth as well as uncertainty around climate change impacts in an area classified by Defra as “serious water stress.”  The Plan also focussed to a far greater extent than before on water resilience.  It aimed to increase affordability by sharing resources with other companies, and considered improving environmental resilience through catchment management and other measures.

 

(8)        Mr Dance then described South East Water’s achievements since the production of the 2014 Plan.  He showed a slide which demonstrated how water leakage had been reduced through investment in new technology and reduced repair times.   Over the past three years it had reduced from @ Ml per day to some 88 Ml/d, exceeding the set reduction target. 

 

(9)       Mr Dance said that water efficiency had been improved through a compulsory metering programme over the previous 8 years, aiming to achieve metering of 90% of customers by 2020.  “Behavioural change experiments” had been introduced where the company would demonstrate to customers how water use was being reduced in other similar properties.  Overall, the leakage and metering programmes had contributed to a saving of 21 Ml/d since 2016/17 at the same time as some 40k new homes had been built across the region.  Meanwhile, investments in works were complementing these results by increasing supply.  The key works in this field were at Forest Row WTW in Sussex and Haywards Heath.   

 

(10)     Mr Dance then discussed the Plan itself. This needed to be developed by forecasting supply for each of the 60 years covered, including projected changes in population and demand.   This indicated that in the early years there would be a surplus of supply over demand, but that this would be dramatically reversed, particularly during the summer peak periods from 2029 onwards, culminating in a demand for an additional 113Ml/d during the summer of 2070/80 in Kent (260Ml/d in the entire SE Water region). 

 

(11)     The Plan’s response to the identified water needs encompassed a variety of solutions such as new resource development, reservoirs, desalination and groundwater options. These solutions (some 500 in total) were sub-divided into “unconstrained” and “constrained” options. These options were then modelled in terms of feasibility, reducing the number to 172. Further modelling was then undertaken to identify the most effective combinations in terms of affordability, environmental performance and adaptability to uncertainty.

 

(12)     Mr Dance said that the Plan had also identified customer preferences.    Strong support had been identified for work to be undertaken on reducing leakage rates and improving water efficiency, whilst effluent re-use and desalination were the least popular options.

 

(13)     Mr Dance then described the modelling exercises. These involved taking all the acquired data on water supply, demand, cost, environmental performance and customer preference, and then running this model against various scenarios in order to identify solutions.   These scenarios included various levels of drought and population increase.  The conclusions derived from this work were that it was necessary to improve levels of resilience to cope with a drought of a one in 200 year severity.    Climate change impacts were identified as “modest” but work had nevertheless been undertaken to adapt to the wide variabilities that could occur.   The twin track approach of demand management and new resources would continue.

 

(14)      Mr Dance said that in order to be able to cope with a one in 200 year drought, an additional 294.2 ML/d would need to be found by 2079.  Until 2030, this would mainly be achieved through leakage reduction, water efficiency and groundwater improvements (reliant upon the successful outcome of negotiations with the Aylesford Newsprint site.   Later on there would be more new use schemes and reservoirs. 

 

(15)      Mr Dance then said that because the Plan took a traditional approach to demand management and new resources, it needed to consider the question of whether it was ambitious enough.  With this in mind, the Plan had modelled water consumption in terms of litres per head per day which was expected to reduce from 147.4 in 2019/20 to 137.6 by 2079/80.   The cumulative water efficiency saving was projected to be 20.7 litres per head per day over the same period whilst the total water leakage reduction would be 14 Ml/d. 

 

 (16)     Mr Dance showed the Committee a map of new supply options.  He said that whereas the current sources were predominantly groundwater-based, the sixty year Plan period envisaged a greater variety including desalination, effluent re-use surface water storage as well as new transfers. 

 

(17)     Mr Dance went on to break down the options by water resource zone.  Ashford would see improved leak reduction and water efficiency measures until 2025. From then until 2045 there would be further WTW improvements, the development of the Broad Oak reservoir and improved pipe connectivity.  Effluent re-use and desalination schemes would be developed in the 2045-2080 period. 

 

(18)     The Cranbrook water resource zone would also see a focus on leak reduction and water efficiency until 2025, followed by water pipe connectivity in the Haywards Heath area between 2025 and 2045.  The final period would see the improvement and expansion of Bewl Water.  

 

(19)     The Tunbridge Wells water resource zone would see similar developments in terms of leak reduction and water efficiency between 2020 and 2025.   A significant feature of the following period was the future regional transfer with Surrey and East Sussex Water, which was under review at this stage. 

 

(20)     The Maidstone water resource zone would concentrate on the development of the Aylesford Newsprint water resource.   A joint scheme was planned with Southern Water for water re-use at Aylesford between 2025 and 2045.  A desalination project in the tidal area of the River Medway was planned for the post 2045 period.

 

(21)     Mr Dance then gave details of some of the pending schemes. The Broad Oak Water project would have a maximum capacity of 5,126m litres and would be capable of supplying 19.6m litres per day. It was to become operational in 2033.  

 

(22)     The Aylesford water re-use scheme would involve upgrading Southern Water’s existing WTW and pumping the treated water into the Medway near Barming.  Water would be extracted downstream near Allington and pumped for full treatment at South East Water’s WTW near Burham.  This project would become operational by 2038, supplying 9m litres of water per day.

 

(23)     The Aylesford Water Treatment Works would, if negotiations went as well as expected, be built on the old Aylesford Newsprint site, using existing groundwater sources.  It would become operational by 2023 and be capable of treating 18.2m litres of water per day.

 

(24)     Mr Dance showed the Committee a slide which summed up the highlights within the plan and the work and investment that this would entail.  He added that the Plan’s publication would enable South East Water to negotiate with Universities in the light of greater certainty over the improvements to equipment and technology which would be required. 

 

(25)     Mr Dance concluded his Water Resource Plan presentation by setting out the key dates. The plan had been submitted to Defra in December 2017 and the three-month consultation period which had begun in February 2018.  Following review and update the Plan would be finalised in Autumn 2018 and published in Winter 2018. 

 

(26)     Mr Dance was asked to comment on South East Water’s response to the current weather conditions. He said that it had been anticipated that there would be a thaw after the snow and ice over the previous week.  On this occasion, the effects had been unprecedented.  South East Water’s volunteers had walked the entire water network route and discovered very few obvious leaks from the pipes.   The problems had occurred because the ground had initially frozen up very quickly followed by a very rapid thaw.   This had caused the ground to move and unsettled the joints between the pipes.  As a result, it had taken a great deal of time to identify exactly where the water was coming from.   The Fire and rescue Service had reported that a large number of private properties were also experiencing leakage of a similar nature.   Hundreds of South East Water’s staff had been taken away from their normal work in order to carry out “find and fix” duties or the provision of bottled water to affected properties and supermarkets.   Events were occurring rapidly, particularly in the Crowborough, Rotherfield and Crowhurst area where some 13,000 properties were without water.  Lenham had also been affected; It had come back on line but there were still intermittent problems.  This figure was purely for properties served by South East Water.   The priority was to get water to those people whose supply had been cut off. 

 

(27)     The Chairman read a message he had received the previous evening from Katie Stewart, Director of Environment Planning and Enforcement.   This gave a figure of 26,000 properties affected in Kent overall.  

 

(28)     Mr Dance replied to a question from Mr Bowles by saying that whenever a leak was repaired, it needed to be repeatedly checked afterwards.   South East Water was aiming to bring leakage down over time through better pressure management and improved monitoring. Before the current thaw, they were putting 500m litres into the system, however an additional 130m litres of demand had arisen once the thaw started.  Although there were small leakage peaks every winter, the resources were normally available to cope with them.  On this occasion, far greater resources were needed.  These were now starting to have success in getting the water supply back to areas in their region. 

 

(29)     Mr Harwood said that a tele-conference emergency planning meeting had taken place during the morning involving South East Water and the other utilities in SE England as well as a number of Strategic Commanders to look at strategic water supply issues in the county following the thaw after the recent cold weather.  He understood that there would still be intermittent water pressure drops leading to possible supply problems across the network.   A Strategic Co-ordinating Group had been constituted under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 chaired by Kent Police, which had just met.   KCC had offered to support the water companies in the distribution of bottled water across impacted communities.  The identification and resolution of leaks was going to be a slow, systematic and methodical piece of work. 

 

(30)     Mr Bowles said that as a Member of Swale BC (served by Southern Water) the biggest complaint he had received over the previous two days was the lack of available information provided to elected Members by the water utilities. This was an important omission because members of the public assumed that Councillors would be aware of what was happening and would therefore contact them rather than anybody else. 

 

(31)     Mrs Brown said that since the floods of 2013, UK Power Networks had set up a completely new system. This had enabled her to receive constant updates from them over the previous week.  She suggested that the water companies could consider setting up a similar system. 

 

(32)     Mr Dance said that South East Water had tried very hard to get messages out.   The snow during the previous week had not given rise to any particular problems for the water companies. The rapid nature of the thaw had caught them by surprise.  He assured the Committee that once the crisis was over, they would carefully examine their communications set up with the aim of identifying improvements.  

 

(33)     Mr Chittenden said that public and elected Member communication by KCC had been excellent over the previous week of snow and cold weather.  He suggested that KCC could support the water companies by sharing their contingencies for emergency public information messaging, such as the Kent Snow#. 

 

(34)     Mr Dance replied to a question from Mrs Doyle by confirming that the planning process for the Broad Oak Water project would start in 2020.   Meetings had been held with the local Parish Councils and the Broad Oak Preservation Society in order that they could share with them details of how the reservoir might look, including the environmental and recreational benefits such as walking.    

 

(35)     Mr Dance replied to a question from Mr Mackonochie on the Pembury catchment area by saying that Pembury featured a number of springs and that there were some historical problems with the use of oxadixyl (a chemical for pesticide use). South East Water had been working very closely on these issues with the EA and some of the landowners in that area, whilst also looking at this question in more general terms.  Similar work was also being undertaken at Arlington Reservoir where problems had arisen connected to the use of slug pellets.  These problems had been reduced by discussion, training, recalibration. These two examples demonstrated the effectiveness of catchment management.

 

(36)     Mrs Mackonichie asked whether the problems at Pembury had affected drinking water.  Mr Dance replied that oxadixyl had affected one particular borehole which had been decommissioned.  Once this chemical problem was resolved, the borehole would once again become available as a source. 

 

(37)     Mrs Mackonochie asked whether South East Water was involved in the production of Local Plans.   Mr Dance replied that the South East Water region encompassed 33 Local Planning Authorities.   South East Water had contracted Experion, a local demographics company to obtain and analyse data from these Local Authorities on their housing population forecasts. The results of this investigation had enabled South East Water to develop its own sixty-year Plan.  The complete accuracy of these forecasts could not be guaranteed, particularly as the Local Plans were at different stages.   Experion had therefore needed to make its best assessment based on the figures and had also set out the potential range of variables to them. These variations had informed South East Water of the most likely areas where its own Plan might need to be changed, resulting in work being undertaken to assess the potential problems in doing so.

 

(38)     Mr Dance continues that South East Water had a statutory duty to supply all new housing and therefore took a keen interest in Local Plans as they were developed. The greatest problems could arise when a significant relocation of housing was proposed within a Local Planning Authority area.  In such cases, the company might need to warn the Local Authority of any infrastructure problems it considered might arise.

 

(39)     Mrs Doyle noted that the use of slug pellets had escalated since stubble burning had been prohibited.  Mr Dance said that South East Water had indeed understood this point and that it was trialling various alternative chemical solutions.

 

(40)     Mr Dance then introduced the second part of his presentation, which was on the Drought Plan.  This was a statutory plan which had to be reviewed and consulted upon every 5 years. The last review had taken place during 2017 resulting in publication of a revised draft for consideration by Defra on 15 December 2017.   This Plan went beyond the 1 in 200-year event considered in the Water Resources Management Plan, considering even more extreme conditions.  

 

(41)     Mr Dance showed a map of the region which identified monitoring points for rainfall levels, groundwater levels, levels of demand, winter rainfall and recharge.   An example of a monitoring site for groundwater levels was Duckpit Farm in the chalk North Downs during the period from 2004 to 2007 when there had been some dry winters.  This had identified a point where severe drought had been reached in January 2006 when Temporary Use Bans had been brought in (although water levels had risen again immediately afterwards. The data from all of the monitoring points was transferred to a matrix known as a “trigger Schematic Tool” which enabled South East Water to act speedily as soon as it was necessary.

 

(42)     Mr Dance showed the Committee the Drought Plan Guidelines published by Defra in 2015 in response to widespread concern over the dry winters of 2010 and 2012.   These guidelines had resulted in stronger linkages between the Water Resource Management and Drought Plans. On result of this had been the increase in levels of resilience in the former from 1 in 100 to 1 in 200 year events.

 

(43)     Mr Dance gave the dates for the exhibitions in respect of the Water Resources Management Plan. These were:-

 

20 March Kings Studio, Aylesford

23 April at Tyler Kiln

24 April Broad Oak Village

26 April Sturry Social Centre.

 

 

(44)       RESOLVED that Mr Dance be thanked for his presentation and that its content be noted for use in future discussions.