£2.5 Million Wastewater Treatment Works For Ardglass

15 April 2013 11:20

NI Water have confirmed that work on a new £2.5 million wastewater treatment works (WwTW) for Ardglass would get underway at the end of April.
 
Giving a briefing to local councillors and MLAs, Kieran Grant from NI Water’s Engineering Procurement unit said that the modern new treatment works – which will be constructed on a Greenfield site adjacent to the existing WwTW off the Sheepland Road – will be able to cope with the combined domestic and trade population equivalent (PE) of 7,600 for Ardglass up to the year 2020 – five times more than the existing plant was originally designed for.
 
“The original Ardglass Wastewater Treatment Works was constructed approximately 40 years ago to deal with a population equivalent of 1,500. However, expansion in local housing and industry over the years has resulted in a substantial increase in sewage flows coming into the works, with the current PE in the region of 6,000. This, coupled with more stringent discharge standards being set by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), has led to the need to replace the existing works with a larger, more modern facility,” Kieran explained.
 
Giving details on the capabilities of the new WwTW and the longer-term benefits the development will bring to the Ardglass area, Kieran said: “The site for the new treatment works – an extended area of the existing WwTW site – will house state-of-the-art infrastructure to facilitate preliminary, primary and secondary treatment as well as storm water storage facilities. The extended treatment process will provide a more robust solution and ensure a cleaner discharge to the Irish Sea in line with NIEA requirements.”
 
Talking about the future, Kieran explained that the larger area of land acquired provides NI Water with enough space for further additional treatment units to be installed should they be required in the future.

Commenting on the construction programme for the new Ardglass works and the operation of the existing facility, Kieran said: “The contract for the construction of the new Ardglass WwTW has been awarded to Maghera-based BSG Civil Engineering who have  years of experience in building similar facilities right across Northern Ireland. All construction work will be carried out within the extended site and all excavated materials will be reused within the site as far as is practicably possible. The existing WwTW will remain operational until the new facility is commissioned in summer 2014,” Kieran added.
 
In closing the meeting, the project team told councillors that a thick landscaping belt of native planting would be undertaken right around the new treatment works to help screen it from any neighbouring properties and that local suppliers would be used where possible during the contract to help boost the local economy.