Lone Lane/Glyn Road/The Birches: Dwr CymruWater Quality update
Many residents of The Birches, Lone Lane and Glyn Road have experienced severe discoloration of their mains water recently, even to the extent of it containing large quantities of sediment. Our MCC Councillors, Jayne McKenna and Richard John have been in contact with Dwr Cymru about this, suggesting that large scale pipe replacement might be needed.
In response, Ian Christie of Dwr Cymru replies:
“Firstly, before we undertake any pipe replacement we assess the number of complaints per length of pipe where service has been impacted either through a leak or through discolouration. Then the extent of what pipe we replace is determined by putting a camera inside the pipe to view internal condition or by taking a pipe sample. As you can imagine with 28,000km of network at an average cost of £500 per metre to replace we have to make sure the investment we make goes as far as possible to improve service to those customers most impacted.
The reason we have not replaced the pipework in this section of the network is the pipe is preferred material in most parts (i.e. not old cast iron) and is in relatively good condition in comparison to other pipes we have replaced. We will therefore not be replacing any more pipe in this network to allow us to replace pipes in poorer condition elsewhere. I’m sorry if this is not what the residents want to hear but this is the robust process we are following for prioritising investment.
Despite being in relatively good condition however, as this network is at the end of the supply system over the years deposits from the pipes in poorer condition upstream have caused sediment build up. When there are higher flows either though bursts or higher demand during warm weather this washes through to customer taps.
In these cases we flush high volumes of water through the network to reduce this sediment build up in the network downstream of pipes we replace. In this case we have not delivered this to the standards I would have expected and for that we are very sorry.
We have agreed to undertake the following actions to improve things;
We will undertake another round of sediment removal flushing which will be better planned and supervised (this should have happened first time)
We will excavate on the customers service pipe to check material and install a filter to assess duration of discolouration returning if applicable to determine future flushing frequencies and effectiveness of flushing.
Kevin Bateman our area manager will be the contact for any residents/stakeholders who may have individual concerns and we can set up a local meeting to talk through the above plans if required?
I hope this provides you some comfort we will be taking action to improve our service to the residents. I also am very sorry we have caused unnecessary worries and we will look to recover this over coming weeks.”