Natural Wastewater Solutions Chosen for Thames Water Treatment

The UK’s largest water company has invested in a new reed bed system to help manage wastewater at its treatment facility in Uffington, Oxfordshire.

Thames Water Limited appointed Rugeley-based reed bed specialists, ARM Reed Beds (UK), to design, build and install a new Forced Bed Aeration (FBA) reed bed to polish the final effluent from the site’s wastewater.

The company removes and treats more than four billion litres of sewerage for 14 million customers across London and Thames Valley each year and its latest investment will enable the company to continue with its commitment to source ecological, cost-effective methods of wastewater treatment.

“We have worked with ARM before and knew they had the expertise to deliver a solution on time and to our exact specification,” says Terry Marsh, a project manager at Thames Water.

“From the outset they developed a solution which fitted our requirements, and then designed, built and installed it within a very tight timeframe – five weeks from start to finish.

“Work on site started at the end of February and the new FBA reed bed and level control direction chamber had been successfully installed by the end of March. The whole process was straightforward and we are very happy with the results,” says Terry.

The new bed ensures Thames Water can now treat an extra daily flow of 174m³ of effluent, which, if required, can be increased to a maximum capacity of 347m³ during peak times.

ARM was awarded the contract as it specialises in providing natural wastewater solutions which guarantees results.

Its FBA reed bed system has all the benefits of a passive reed bed but can treat larger quantities of effluent in a smaller footprint.

Tori Sellers, a director at ARM, says: “Over the past decade reed beds have become a popular alternative method of treating wastewater due to their low-energy requirement, sustainability, habitat creation and versatility.

“Thames Water was very specific about how the reed bed needed to perform and took full of advantage of ARM’s bespoke design service.

“By using Forced Bed Aeration technology it will be able to achieve a performance which would have been unattainable through a passive reed beds system due to amount and type of effluent it needed to treat,” says Tori.