Bespoke Water Treatment System Installed During the Construction of a New Housing Development to Protect the Environment and Local Community

Project Overview

Bellway, one of the UK's largest house builders, was undertaking construction work on a new housing development which consisted of 370 new homes. Of these homes, 222 will be for private sale, while the remaining 148 will be available through shared ownership schemes.

Challenge

After the completion of earthworks, Bellway constructed an attenuation pond at the lowest point of the site. However, an unrecorded water main was discovered within a nearby carriageway. This unexpected discovery obstructed the original route planned for the new outfall pipe.

During this time, the area experienced heavy rainfall and melting snow, causing the ground to become saturated. Water began to collect in the attenuation basin, with no outfall available to discharge it. The attenuation pond had around 600mm of freeboard remaining and contained significant volumes of silt-contaminated water. If it continued to rain, there was a risk of the pond overtopping, leading to an uncontrolled discharge that would negatively impact the nearby carriageway and cause a pollution incident in the nearby brook. Bellway were keen to prioritise finding a way to reduce the water level in the pond, whilst the new outfall was being created. Otherwise, the impact on the environment and local community could have been severe.

Bellway took immediate action, and reached out to RVT for support.

Solution

RVT collected water samples from the site and performed in-house jar tests. Based on the results, RVT Group supplied a system capable of treating 14 litres/second consisting of:

• EnviroHub TU02 Dosing Skid to automatically add the dose required to achieve adequate water quality
• EnviroHub TT10 Treatment Tank for PAC and Caustic dosing
• EnviroHub HL50 Lamella Plate Settlement Tank for solids separation
• EnviroHub TT03 Treatment Tank – 3m³ Holding Tank, to allow the effluent from the lamella to be pumped to the outfall

RVT also provided:

• An EnviroHub Monitoring Unit to monitor the pH, turbidity and flow of water
• Soundex^® Curtains to ensure that any noise created by the EnviroHub solutions was kept to a minimum

The video below demonstrates the treatment of surface water runoff using our Envirohub Water Treatment System, enabling compliant discharge to the receiving brook.

The installation clearly shows the effective management of heavily silt-laden water through a combination of the treatment tank and integrated lamella clarifier. This process significantly reduces suspended solids, delivering consistently clear effluent suitable for controlled discharge in line with environmental and regulatory expectations.