UU looks to draw from the Bollin

United Utilities has lodged an EIA scoping report with Trafford Council for a river water abstraction scheme, along with associated treatment works and a service reservoir on land between Warburton and Broadheath.

As set out in the report drawn up with advisors WSP and Jacobs, the utilities giant has decided not to seek out a screening opinion, due to the scale and complexity of the project, proceeding directly to the Environmental Impact Assessment scoping process.

UU said that such a major civil engineering project will take up to five years to deliver, with the hope being it will start on site in 2029. Construction is likely to take place over a stretch of up to 3.7m.

The whole area covered by the scoping report is 1,470 acres, although only a small part of that would actually be developed on.

The report as submitted to Trafford determines which environmental aspects could be significantly affected by the scheme – and are thus ‘scoped in’ – and those that could not, and are thus scoped out.

UU is pushing the Bollin scheme, in the south-western part of Trafford borough, as part of ensuring it can meet its future obligations under the North West Transfer Strategic Resource Option, while also providing resilience to customers’ water supply.

The scheme would comprise:

• A new surface water abstraction point on the River Bollin, with a nearby pumping station connecting to a conveyance pipe
• A conveyance pipe constructed below ground level to transfer raw water from the pumping station to a permanent water treatment works capable of processing 25 megalitres per day.
• A service reservoir at the treatment works.
• Connection of existing water mains infrastructure to the service reservoir to enable blending of treated water from different sources, and the return of some of the blended water back to the existing mains
• New rising mains to connect treated and blended water from the works into the existing distribution network on the A56 Manchester Road.

Locations for temporary and permanent infrastructure and construction facilities associated with the scheme have not yet been determined.

Design development is ongoing, said UU, with further details to be released once Trafford publishes its scoping opinion later this year, and as the design is progressed by UU in consultation with landowners and other stakeholders.

What can be said for definite is that the scheme would be located between the River Bollin abstraction point on the edge of Lymm to the west and the urban fringe of Altrincham and Broadheath to the east.

Here, the treated water from the proposed treatment works would connect into existing United Utilities water mains.

In a broad sense, the project is a response to the National Infrastructure Commission’s reort in 2018 that with the water supply situation as it stood, there would be a 25% chance of “a large number of UK households” facing emergency measures – such as standpipe use and rota cuts – within the next 30 years.

The over-arching goal of the North West Transfer is to identify and develop new water sources in the North West that can help in maintaining supply resilience.

Interested in reading more? All documents relating to the project can be viewed on Trafford Council’s planning portal with the reference 116787/EIASCO/25.