Published: Wednesday, 9th January, 2008 10:30
Improvement work keeps flowing for River Tweed
By Susie Penman
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The River Tweed will benefit from investment
THE River Tweed is to benefit from a major investment from Scottish Water this year—and Galashiels will be seeing the effects.
The waters of the well-known salmon fishing river are being protected and enhanced by an ongoing series of Scottish Water works, worth millions of pounds.
Scottish Water’s Regional Manager for The Borders, Craig Lawson, highlighted the role that Scottish Water plays in the vital local tourist trade.
“It’s important that Scottish Water keeps working hard to improve the quality of the River Tweed. We’re investing millions to keep one of the world’s best salmon fishing river’s flowing, by investing at our waste water treatment works throughout The Borders.”
Among the water treatment projects being undertaken by Scottish Water is a £2.2 million refit at Galashiels Waste Water Treatment Woks.
The six-month refurbishment is due to begin in February, and will see the plant – which currently treats effluent from a population of 18,000 – maintained to the highest levels, with new screens, grit removal and filters.
Other mechanical equipment vital to the treatment process will also be replaced, allowing the plant to remain fully effective as the main sludge treatment centre for the entire Borders area.
It will also ensure the works - which discharges directly to the River Tweed – will meet the strict guidelines set down by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Kelso, Sprouston and Lilliesleaf will also benefit from investments, Kelso Waste Water Treatment Works receiving a further £400,000 to be spent on essential upgrading work to meet the SEPA standards.
A major part of the work, scheduled to run from February to June, will be the installation of specialist pumps to keep the biological treatment processes working at optimum levels.
Other improvement will also mean a dramatic reduction in rags or other visible effluent reaching the waters of the Tweed.
At Sprouston and Lilliesleaf, where existing septic tanks will be replaced with full treatment, additional biological treatment, filtration and settlement stages will be created, dramatically improving the quality of discharge to the receiving waters.
At Sprouston, an estimated £300,000 spent will directly benefit the waters of the Tweed, while at Lilliesleaf an estimated £400,000 investment will see improvements to the River Ale, which in turn feeds the Teviot and then the Tweed.
It is hoped work will begin during 2008.
Investment for the new projects comes just as a number of projects have been completed and are already delivering significant water quality improvements to the Tweed.
The £800,000 investment on the inlet works at Melrose Waste Treatment Works, which saw an unsatisfactory combined storm overflow at Annay Road, has been upgraded to provide extra screening.
At Ancrum, a further £150,000 was invested to provide screening of the storm overflow – therefore ensuring the worst effluent is removed from the waters reaching the Teviot at times of heavy rain.
Jedburgh is also reaping the benefits of a successful upgrading, where new screw pumps were fitted in the system delivering twin benefits – a far more efficient flow of effluent into Jedburgh Waste Water Treatment Works for proper treatment and a greatly reduced risk of storm overflows.
Thanks to the £270,000 investment there, water quality in the Teviot has improved.
The best part of it all, however, is that there is more to come.
“This is only part of the work we’re carrying out in The Borders,” Mr Lawson said.
“We’ll shortly be outlining all the projects which will be undertaken over the next year.”
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