Our Commitment To the Environment
Ever since it was founded in 1846, Bristol Water has recognised
and met its environmental, social and ethical responsibilities. The
Company and its staff take pride in our environmental
performance.
We deliver an essential service to over a million people and
businesses every day. We recognise the impacts of our activities on
the wider society and seek to make these as sustainable and
positive as possible.
Vision:
Over the next 25 years our objective is to provide water in a
sustainable and affordable way on a highly reliable basis that
customers have confidence in and are happy to drink. Among the
ways we aim to do this are by:
- Understanding the current and future needs and priorities of all stakeholders
- Understanding risks and managing them to an optimum position
- Minimising water abstractions if there is a risk of environmental damage;
encouraging others to use water resources in a sustainable way
- Reviewing other impacts on the environment to minimise adverse effects
- Operating with integrity in a professional manner at all times and within well
thought out principles taking specific care in planning for the future
- Maintaining programmes of community involvement and encouraging, where
possible, the public to visit our facilities and understand our business
- Providing open and honest channels of communication with the media, local
government and others
- Dealing with suppliers in an ethical way but demanding high standards and full
contractual compliance from them.
Measuring our Impact: Why we do it
The business of water supply has always been closely linked with the natural
world, but we are aware that our activities as a Company can have a
significant effect on the environment. We believe it is one of our key
responsibilities as a water company to understand this and to reduce this
impact wherever possible.
Of course, the effect of our activities can also be positive: the Mendip lakes
were created solely for the purpose of water supply, but are now an
internationally important area for wildlife. For us to operate as a sustainable
company, we have to meet the needs of the present without compromising
our environment for the future.
We have identified our most significant environmental impacts, and we
measure these on a monthly basis for report to the Company Board and
managers. Some of these measures are shown on the following pages,
together with an explanation of why this measure is important and the work
we do to minimise impact in this area.
Measuring our Impact: Water use
We comply with all the requirements of all our abstraction licences, and
where an environmental benefit can be created we have gone beyond these
requirements. For instance, we have voluntarily reduced the abstraction
from our sources at Long Newnton to improve river flows in the Tetbury
Avon.
To reduce demand we provide water-saving advice to business and domestic
customers, and we hold regular free open days which attract thousands of
visitors. At these open days and at other events, we provide information to
the public on water-saving measures they can take for themselves, as well as
providing water-saving equipment and water butts at a discount rate. There
is an extensive display of water saving devices in our visitor centre, together
with educational information.
Measuring our Impact: Chemicals
Some 99% of the water we supply needs “complex treatment”, which
requires chemicals to remove potentially harmful micro-organisms,
chemicals, and to maintain quality in the water mains system. The water we
supply is of extremely high quality once treated, but chemicals are an
essential part of the treatment process.
Producing treatment chemicals uses natural resources and energy, and the
chemicals have to be transported from the manufacturing site. Staff have to
handle and manage chemicals to strict levels of control, and chemicals used
to remove solids from untreated water create “sludge” which requires proper
disposal.
Through the most efficient use of the different water sources available, we
can minimise the amount of chemicals needed. This must however be
balanced with the need to plan ahead for water supply throughout the year
and our absolute requirement that the quality of the drinking water we
supply is never compromised.
Measuring our Impact: Energy and CO2
Water is a heavy material and we treat and supply nearly a third of a million
tonnes per day. This requires almost 10 megawatts of power, and the power
stations which produce this burn fossil fuels although we do purchase power
produced by “good-quality combined heat and power” which produces less
CO2 than more traditional generation systems. Our calculated CO2
emissions include fuel use from transport, but almost 95% of our CO2
emission arises as a result of power use, primarily for pumping water from
sources to customers.
Energy is expensive and our power bill runs into millions of pounds, so it
has always made business sense to keep our power consumption as low as
possible For several years we have worked to reduce this through computer
modelling of our treatment systems and networks, but this is extremely
complex and to address this we have increased the number of staff working
on power management. Power minimisation is a key factor in the design of
capital schemes.
Measuring our Impact: Leakage
Water lost through a leak is wasted water. The leaking water will eventually
return to the natural environment, but there is an impact in the energy and
chemicals used when the water is collected, treated and pumped.
We meet the leakage target set by our regulator and have done so year after
year - we invest heavily in leakage detection work and are constantly
working to improve detection rates and response times. We have
programmes of replacing or refurbishing mains where we see the highest
burst rates. We would like to do more on leakage and we believe that more
money will need to be spent in this area in future, but there remain tight
controls from Ofwat on the level of money we can spend.
We control our rate of leakage to below the “economic level”. The easiest
way of describing this is to say we spend more on leakage control than the
full cost of the water saved, including its environmental costs. We do this
because we appreciate that it is unacceptable to allow the level of reported
leakage to increase. As our network both grows and ages, our leakage rate is
reducing.
Our responsibility for special sites
Bristol Water is responsible for many environmentally important sites,
including a total of 19 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The Government’s Public Service Agreement target is for 95% of SSSI land
to be designated as in ‘favourable’ or ‘recovering’ condition by 2010. All of
Bristol Water’s SSSIs - covering over 900 hectares – are in ‘favourable’
status. This performance is at the forefront of the UK water industry and
we pledge to continue our responsible management of these assets, including
working where we can with other stakeholders whose actions may affect the
condition of an SSSI.
Our Biodiversity Action Plans
Bristol Water has a long-established policy to manage land to conserve and
enhance its natural beauty and to protect flora, fauna and geological features
of special interest. Every year Bristol Water carries out projects to benefit
wildlife and to improve access for visitors, and full details of these are
available our website www.bristolwater.co.uk
All our land holdings are managed in ways sympathetic to the needs of
wildlife, and our work around sites which are important for biodiversity is
carried out in a way laid down in formal Biodiversity Action Plans. These
plans are controlled as part of the company’s quality assurance management
systems and represent “business as normal” for Bristol Water.
The Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) have practical results – for example at
Cheddar the findings of a survey for a BAP helped inform the way we
carried out engineering work, where plans for laying a new water main
included protection of a wet area where sedges, rushes and irises had been
identified during the BAP survey.
BAPs are now being carried out at all our major treatment works, and are
updated to ensure their continued relevance. Regular surveys are carried out
and any new findings are added to the BAP species lists, so our
understanding of our responsibilities continues to grow.
Climate Change
Climate change represents an enormous challenge to society as a whole, but
to the water industry in particular because climate has such an impact on the
availability of water and our customers’ need for water. We have for many
years measured our “carbon footprint” and have set ourselves a demanding
target of reducing our own carbon emissions by 50% by 2050 in order to
mitigate the impact of our activities, but we also have to adapt to the impacts
of climate change.
Our plans over the next 25 years will therefore take account of the impact
climate change will have on the way we do business. Current research
indicates that weather patterns in our area will include a hotter, drier,
summer and a milder, wetter, winter. As a result, it is likely that we will
need to create more water storage to capture this winter rain, and we may
also see changes in the quality of lakes and rivers in our area. We will also
work more closely with our customers on water efficiency measures
throughout the year.
Climate change is the subject of intensive research and we will maintain our
existing very close links with all the stakeholders involved, to ensure that
our understanding remains as up-to-date as possible and that regulators and
our customers become aware of any new issues as they arise.
Catchment management
We have for many years worked with farmers and other land users in the
areas where our water sources are located to protect the quality of this water.
This has led to significant improvements, but the principles of good
catchment management are increasing in importance because deterioration in
quality at the water source may mean that that more sophisticated water
treatment techniques are required to ensure we continue to provide drinking
water that meets DWI requirements.
One particular case where we have made progress through catchment
management has been with nitrate in the Gloucester-Sharpness canal. This
important water source can at times show nitrate above the drinking water
standard, which limits its use as a water source. By careful investigation and
working with land users in the area, we have been able to identify the main
sources of nitrate and are now working with these stakeholders to help
improve the management of the catchment. If this is successful, it will mean
that further, more complex, treatment of the water will not be necessary,
which will save thousands of tonnes of CO2 which would be incurred from
increased energy and chemical costs.
We will use the experience we have gained through this project to ensure
that all our water sources continue to be protected. Looking to the future,
we intend to carry out further catchment assessment for the Mendip Lakes
and other sources which may be at risk from deterioration, and we will work
closely with land users and other stakeholders such as Natural England and
the Environment Agency to ensure that this is addressed as effectively as
possible.
Our Commitment
- We will continue our ongoing good management of our environmental
assets, including our custodianship of sites of special scientific
interest.
- We will continue to measure all our significant environmental impacts
and work constantly to ensure these impacts are controlled.
- We will keep all our Biodiversity Action Plans up to date and use
them to ensure that our work is carried out in a way which is sensitive
to the needs of the environment.
- We will rise to the challenge of climate change. We will ensure that
our investment and maintenance is managed in a way which will
mitigate our impact on the global environment, and will take account
of future change. We will also maintain close links with other
stakeholders on climate change research.
- We will gain a better understanding of potential issues in sensitive
water catchment areas, and we will work with all the stakeholders
involved to reduce the impact that these may have on water quality
and biodiversity.
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