Balmore has added sparkle in its water

WHEN the customer calls began to come in that the water out of the tap had turned blue, East of Scotland Water knew its #46 million investment was beginning to pay dividends. It isn't blue, they could safely say; rather, it is so clear it sparkles in the sunshine. What's more, it isn't water from any old place. It is water from a national icon, Loch Lomond. If they could bottle it, they'd make a fortune.

Friday's royal opening by The Duke of York of the Balmore water treatment works, to the south-east of Loch Lomond, is the latest chapter in a multi-million pound investment programme being undertaken by East of Scotland Water, one of three water authorities set up in 1996 following local government re-organisation and the subsequent clustering of local authority-based water services.

The other two are West of Scotland Water and North of Scotland Water. Just why East of Scotland Water should be operating at Loch Lomond - on the west side of the country - is down to simple meteorology: the east is drier than the west.

Balmore has been operating for three decades, drawing water from Loch Lomond, treating it so it is safe for human consumption, and pumping it to domestic and industrial users throughout central and east-central Scotland.

It was the product of post-war visionary thinking; the realisation that in years to come, the demand for water would increase faster than population growth. But its transformation into Scotland's biggest water treatment works was not for the reason most commonly cited by the water authorities when justifying their investment plans and the increased charges to customers that inevitably flow.

Scotland is still largely served by a water and sewerage system bequeathed by the Victorians and it is this legacy - now nearing the end of its useful life - that is being addressed by the investments being carried out across all three water authorities, not least East of Scotland Water whose investment programme for this financial year alone is #147m.

However, Balmore - little more than 30 years old - was earmarked for revamping for slightly different reasons: a predicted increase in the demand for water and more stringent water quality standards.

"Since Balmore was first built, there have been dramatic changes in the standards required of water quality," says Willie Thomson, one of two water supply and treatment managers at East of Scotland Water.

"There has been legislation from the European Community and the expectations of customers have risen. Quite rightly, people no longer accept the water standards that applied 30 years ago. We know things now - scientifically, for example - that we didn't know then and have acted accordingly.

"From the point of view of someone who has worked in the industry for as long as Balmore has been in operation, what is particularly exciting is that there is now the money available to turn our hopes into reality. The formation of East of Scotland Water has provided funding that was not available when water and sewerage were departments within local authorities.

"The situation then was that regional authorities didn't have the resources to bring about the changes that were needed. East of Scotland Water is a wholly public owned body that finances its investment through what it charges the customer. Now there is the funding and although that's led to relatively large percentage increases in the charges customers are having to pay, for a few extra pence per day they are receiving high quality water and will have a secure supply well into the future."

There were two main concerns about the water treatment at Balmore before its recent redevelopment. One was a parasite which emanates from cattle and finds its way into Loch Lomond - one of the UK's largest sources of drinking water - via the hillside streams that feed it. The other was from the presence of naturally occurring organic material in the water which reacts adversely to the chemical, chlorine, that is used to disinfect water.

At no time in the past 30 years has the parasitic organism, cryptosporidium, represented a danger, even remotely, to public safety. Or that the chemical reaction, trihalomethane, caused by the addition of chlorine, ever existed at a level to cause anxiety. But in the drive to improve standards and with legislation in 1990 demanding a reduction in trihalomethane, what was needed was a new filtration system at Balmore. The general public get a chance to see what it is all about at an open day on Saturday.

When Balmore was opened in 1971, the filter process was much like the one used by domestic customers - a fine sieve. The replacement system removes debris by sending chemically pre-treated water down through layers of fine gravel. Its posh name is Rapid Gravity Filtration. Simply, water flows through the layers of gravel into a collecting channel at the bottom.

The 24 filters at Balmore, when joined together, extend to more than 240 metres. Every day, the water that passes through Balmore would cover 50 football pitches to a metre deep. And the reason for 24 filters rather than only one? On a rotating cycle, the direction of the water is reversed to clean the layers of gravel of their sediment: every 30 hours a tank has water pushed through the layers from the bottom up.

"Balmore is one of the most prestigious developments in East of Scotland Water's capital investment programme," says acting chief executive Jim Brown. "Two of our key aims are to improve levels of service to all customer groups and to retain our reputation as a strong protector of the environment.

"Balmore delivers on both these fronts. It is a state-of-the-art works, using latest designs in water treatment processes to improve water quality, protect public health and ensure security of supply to customers."

Out with the old and in with the new

AMONG East of Scotland Water's customers is the petrochemical industry at Grangemouth. The construction work at Balmore - which included consolidating former mineworks - was carried out by, among others, MJ Gleeson (civil engineering), OTVB (plant contractor) and the Halcrow Group (engineers). Balmore is a project East of Scotland Water inherited from the Central Scotland Water Development Board.

From start to finish, the new Balmore has taken six years to complete. It has taken that long partly because it was never possible to take the old Balmore out of the system. While construction work was going on all around it, the original Balmore had to keep serving its customers.

When it came to making sure the new Balmore was ready to come on stream, the operational demands were intense. Reconciling the demands of the testers with the need to keep the system operating smoothly involved the movement of a lot of water.

Willie Thomson says: "The royal opening took place on Friday, but the new plant has been operating since October, though we have yet to reach full capacity, which is 365 million litres or 80m gallons per day. At present, we're operating at 200m litres a day (45m gallons."

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