Severn Trent has announced it will invest over £250m on its storm overflows in improving river health in Shropshire.
The water company will make the investment over a 25-year period up to 2050, as part of its plans to reduce activations from storm overflows across the county.
A total of 167 storm overflows in Shropshire will undergo investment – which could range from increasing the capacity of its storage tanks to introducing green nature-based solutions.
The company is also investing to ensure rivers are monitored closer than ever before with 100% of its storm overflows with monitors – and the company is now analysing around 300m pieces of data a year helping to prioritise investment.
The investment for Shropshire forms part of a wider £4.4bn injection into 2,472 storm overflows across the Severn Trent region, as part of the water company’s Storm Overflow Action Plan (SOAP).
The aim is to reduce the number of spills into water courses across the county, ensuring that by 2040 no overflow will spill more than 10 times in an average year in high priority areas, and in all areas by 2045, five years ahead of Government targets.
Bob Stear, Severn Trent Chief Engineer said: “This is a huge long-term investment plan for Shropshire, improving storm overflows and bringing benefits to rivers now and during the coming years.
“Today’s announcement marks another significant milestone in our drive to deliver real improvements in river health. This is why we launched Get River Positive that has already delivered great results, despite the region having experienced seven named storms between September and December, contributing to some of the wettest months on record. And we know there is still more to do, which is why this investment is so important – not just to us, but to our region’s rivers and the communities they serve.”
Since launching its Get River Positive, Severn Trent has delivered strong results and committed to significant investment in Shropshire, including:
– As part of its Green Recovery, Severn Trent is investing £78m to improve the water quality along more than 50km of river in Shropshire and Warwickshire and help move two stretches (on the rivers Teme and Leam) towards bathing quality by 2025 – making them better places for everyone.
– Launching a £11.5 million investment programme at six sewage treatment works across Shropshire to further improve river health in the area, including Monkmoor Sewage Treatment Works. Once the work is complete, the multi-million pound investment will ensure the company’s operations will not be responsible for any harm caused to that particular stretch of the River Severn.
As schemes progress Severn Trent says that more detail will be shared on what action is planned for every storm overflow.
A live ‘Event Duration Monitor’ map is due to be launched later this year, which will be a great tool for people to see what investment plans are taking place on all storm overflows across the region.
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