CATCH welcomed over 60 delegates (in person and via teams) to a Water Conference hosted by the Humber Environmental Managers Network.  The group was delighted to welcome their guest chair for the event Tony March, Director of Public Sector and Industrial Customers at Wave Utilities.

The first speaker was Matthew Woollin, Technical Specialist -Installations Team North & East Yorkshire, Environment Agency who gave an update on the Environment Agencies work in industrial clusters to investigate environmental constraints, in particular air and water quality, flood risk and water availability.  The study into water availability in the Humber has been followed by investigations into air quality in Teesside and water quality/quantity in Merseyside.  Matt set the scene for factors affecting water constraints for industrial users in the south Humber area.

Up next, delegates heard from Holly Schofield, Technical Lead at the Environment Agency who gave a presentation on the Digital Twin of an Industrial Cluster – proof of concept study.  The modelling used MS Azure software to run realistic models for water flow and temperature for industry and the impact of climate change on the modelled system over time.  The project proved that there are benefits of creating digital twins to explore cumulative impacts for industrial clusters.

Tony then introduced Simon Crane, Industrial Account Manager, Wave Utilities & Geoff Darch, Head of Supply Demand Strategy, Anglian Water Services who gave a joint presentation on water resource planning.  The work completed last year, presented into Ofwat and DEFRA consultation process, revealed an estimated new industrial demand for 60,000 cubic metres per day.  The current supply into South Humber Bank is 42,000 cubic metres of industry grade water and 75,000 cubic metres of potable water.  The region is at the forefront of net zero deployment in the UK and the economic growth potential is enormous.

Geoff outlined the complexity of non-household demand and described their non-domestic policy position.  The policy will see demand management through water efficiency and increased water re-use as well as 2 new reservoirs, interconnector upgrades and a longer term plan to build a 60Ml/day desalination plant at Mablethorpe.  Geoff explained the advantages of the coastal water feed to justify the location of this new facility.  In the short term the re-use of up to 21,000 cubic metres per day of outflow from the Pyewipe effluent treatment plant in Grimsby is under consideration.

After a short break Simon facilitated a discussion around the issues and next steps including working together to produce a water masterplan for the south Humber bank.  Tony facilitated questions from the delegates.

The next Humber Environmental Managers Network is on Wednesday 5^th June.  For more details contact katie.hedges@catchuk.org