UK Drinking Water Plant Achieves Future Readiness in 18 Months

Customer Objectives 

A South West Water (SWW) plant on the River Tavy needed to replace rotating brush screens at their water intakes. The screens had fallen into disrepair due to inaccessibility for maintenance; they were performing unreliably and risked system failure. Also, the water screens’ apertures didn’t comply with the Eels (England and Wales) Regulations 2009, adding further risk of potential penalties. 

The project faced additional challenges: a short time frame and external stakeholder requirements. The plant had 18 months to identify, design, permit, and install fully compliant screens. The owner of a private property bordering the site raised concerns around noise and visual aesthetics. Careful stakeholder management and thoughtful design were essential to achieving a solution acceptable to all parties and avoiding any delays. 

Hydrolox Execution 

SWW chose Hydrolox water screens due to their proven performance on past projects, with some screens running successfully for over 12 years. They chose two Hydrolox Series 1800 water screens in a duty/standby setup. This redundancy would allow the plant to operate successfully under changing conditions. 

Addressing aesthetic concerns, the Hydrolox team collaborated on a custom design with SWW’s Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) team and design contractor, who praised our excellent communication throughout. A noise assessment showed no legal issues, but we added acoustic insulation (proven effective at another site) to further reduce potential complaints. We addressed the neighbor’s concerns about the screens’ height by redesigning them with a direct-drive system that significantly lowered the hoods. 

Results 

The Hydrolox team retrofitted fully compliant screens within the tight timeline while also eliminating confined space and crane requirements. Accessibility drastically improved with all maintenance and repair work above deck. The duty/standby setup provides SWW redundancy for the future, securing the water supply at this critical intake. Beyond the design and acoustic considerations, we chose fencing to match the neighbor's property. To give a seamless aesthetic, we painted the screen hoods and fence to match their trim colors. Shrubbery landscaping was also provided at the site to complete the look. Because such care was taken in the project design and execution, the neighbor was very pleased with the result. In the end, all parties were extremely satisfied with the speed, aesthetics, and future-readiness of the Hydrolox retrofit.