Water company invests millions to reduce wastewater spills in county
A major project to reduce wastewater spills across the county is advancing swiftly.
United Utilities' multi-million-pound investment plan aims to tackle the issue of storm overflow spills.
Reports from the Environment Agency (EA) have revealed that, despite increased rainfall in 2024 and nine named storms, the company's annual event duration monitoring (EDM) indicates a 38 per cent reduction in spill duration across the county.
The number of spills from storm overflows has also dropped by 22 per cent.
Across the North West, the EDM submission reports a 31 per cent reduction in spill duration, with the number of spills from storm overflows falling by 20 per cent.
United Utilities plans to invest more than £13 billion over the next five years in the largest ever investment in water and wastewater services in the North West.
This investment aims to benefit the environment, improve the health of rivers and seas, and tackle leakage.
A key part of this investment will address more than 1,100 storm overflows, including 103 in Lancashire, with an aim to reduce activations by over 60 per cent by 2030.
Matt Hemmings, chief operating officer at United Utilities, stated: "Our teams right across the North West have been working extremely hard to make the improvements that people want to see benefit their local rivers, watercourses and bathing waters.
"From increasing storage on sites to looking at bespoke solutions such as sustainable drainage and new innovative ways of treating wastewater to even higher standards, we are starting to see the impact our investment is making, and this is helping us make great progress in reducing spills and improving river health.
"We are now embarking on the largest ever investment programme in our infrastructure that will see the biggest overhaul of the region's sewer network in a century."
Early investment at several sites across Lancashire is already delivering benefits in terms of spill reduction.
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New storage tanks, sustainable drainage solutions, and significant network enhancements have all been implemented.
Burnley has seen a £77 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment works, which has reduced the number of times storm overflows are operated and enhanced water quality in the River Calder.
The major overhaul of the facility introduced new treatment processes and additional stormwater storage.
United Utilities aims to ensure that each storm overflow operates less than 10 times a year by 2050.
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