Field notes
Water supply contract awarded in Draveil, France, for €20m
The Sénart Val de Seine joint urban authority has selected Veolia Water to manage the water supply network and customer service for its main town of Draveil (28,500 people with 7,025 water service customers).
Worth over 20 million euros over a period of 10 years, the contract, delegated up to now to another private operator, enables Veolia Water to establish operations in a new area of the Essonne department, which is part of the Ile-de-France region surrounding Paris.
Veolia Water will be providing solutions to meet the needs of the town of Draveil for water supply and network performance.
Under the terms of the contract, Veolia Water has committed:
- A lasting improvement in distribution network performance: Veolia Water will find leaks and repair them in order to reach a performance of 85% rather than the 81.9% measured in 2012 (1,259,000 cubic meters distributed). To meet this challenging target, 1 kilometer of network will be renewed every year.
- An improvement in customer satisfaction via indicators that will ensure reduced lead times for each type of request (replies to letters, technical interventions, compliance with appointment times, etc.)
Smart meter trial rolled out in South Staffs Water
South Staffs Water has started a trial to connect up to 1,000 smart meters in Kinver, South Staffordshire, UK.
The trial will take place over a two-year period and delivered by SmartReach, a collaboration of Arqiva, BAE Systems Detica and Sensus.
Many of the meters will be situated in underground chambers.
Ceramic membrane partnership agreed
Dutch firm PWN Technologies and Japanese operation METAWATER have entered an 18 month agreement to seek out and develop business opportunities for the supply of ceramic membrane systems.
PWN Technologies' primary roles in the alliance will be marketing, business development, client management and the supply and engineering of its CeraMac system. METAWATER will be responsible for delivering the membranes for the system and the supply of engineering services.
PWN Technologies and METAWATER collaborated on the construction of the water treatment plant Andijk III (PWN) in the Netherlands and the CeraMac demoplant at the Choa Chu Kang Waterworks (PUB) in Singapore.
A trial is also underway in Southern England using ceramic membrane filtration.
The starting point for the partnership will be to determine which system, either CeraMac or METAWATER's ceramic system, is more appropriate for a certain project, including from the standpoint of the specific technical approach, such as piloting.
Both companies will make commercially reasonable efforts to collaborate intensively on conducting pilot testing. It is anticipated that each pilot test will be approached as a common project, which will entail the sharing of resources i.e. pilot plants, data, and operational staff. A joint economic analysis will be done to determine where each respective system is the most competitive based on flow rate.
Envirogen Water Technologies Group snaps up UK firm
Envirogen Water Technologies has acquired the assets of Derwent Water Services and Derwent Water Systems with the aim to increase its presence in the UK industrial water treatment and filtration market.
Derwent Water has established itself as a manufacturer and supplier of water treatment plant products, including basic water softeners and reverse osmosis equipment. The Envirogen Group already has Puresep Technologies and Environmental Water Systems (UK) as part of the European Group, alongside Envirogen Technologies Inc in the US. The Derwent Water brand will continue to have a presence under the parent company and legal entity Envirogen Water Technologies.
Biofilm wastewater upgrade in tough Norwegian conditions
Norway's Røros municipality has upgraded its water treatment plant for NOK 10 million (EUR 1.3 million) with biofilm technology from Biowater Technology.
The heart of the purification plant consists of two bioreactors that clean wastewater for organic dissolved material using their own bio-elements flowing freely around the reactors. The challenge of Røros is the cold winters (down to -40° C), which means trials for both technical equipment and living cultures. Over the past few years, climate effects have led to fluctuations in precipitation and temperature, which occasionally result in high dilution of drains and extreme variation in temperature.
The purification plant handles sewage from approximately 3,000 person equivalents (p.e.), as well as wastewater from the slaughterhouse and dairy, which gives a total purification need equivalent to 4,000 p.e. The biological process is designed for 10.000 p.e.
Arnfinn Vestengen, plant manager, said: “As Røros municipality is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites for historic mining, as well as sought after by sports fishermen. Effluent must look clear and be clean. It is our goal and requirement to affect Glomma as little as possible this is Norway's main river."
German dewatering technology company acquired by Xylem
German dewatering company Pollmann Pumpen has been acquired by Xylem for approximately $3 million (€2.3m).
Germany is said to be the second largest construction rental market in Europe. The acquired company operates from three locations in the north and east of Germany.
The company was founded in 1961 and has 30 employees. It has a rental fleet of approximately 300 diesel and electric powered dewatering pumps, serving customers across Germany.
