Cleaning of Sewer Treatment Works

When storm overflow tanks at Basildon Sewer Treatment Works needed cleaning, Industrial Water Jetting Systems (UK) were chosen as the contractor to carry out the campaign.

The three large open tanks are designed to store overflow waste when sudden inputs that occur during heavy rain fall exceed the plants’ processing capacity. Each tank is 56 m long and capable of holding 1.5 million litres of sewage.

The storm tanks had not been fully drained and cleaned for 15 years and high levels of silt, rag and grease had built up.

Each phase of the operation required one tank to be drained and then jetted to remove all the debris. Due to the scale IWJS required five days to complete the work for each tank. As the site continued to be operational, planning was critical to the success of the job. All health and safety concerns had to be addressed prior to commencement including the hourly monitoring of local weather conditions.

The IWJS Colchester depot provided four major pieces of equipment and six experienced operators to ensure smooth continuous processing of the waste.

The IWJS operators left each of the three tanks in an ‘as new’ condition much to the delight of the works management team. Paul Ellis of LES Engineering says “IWJS have delivered a very high level of service within very tight time restraints using some of the best plant and operators available within the waste water cleaning industry”