Usk Community Project
As a company, we depend on the environment for the water and wastewater services we provide. We take our responsibilities to protecting the environment seriously and we invest around £1 million a day in improving and maintaining our networks.
We also know that customers want us to do more, especially to help protect the quality of our rivers such as the Usk. This is why we are working in your area to improve how our assets - such as Combined Storm Overflows - operate.
On this page you will find some information on the challenges we face, the £10 million investment we’re making over the next three years and the funding available to support the community with good causes in the area.
What’s the problem?
The quality of our main rivers is monitored by Natural Resources Wales. There is concern about the river water quality in parts of the Usk as they’re not achieving what’s called ‘good’ ecological status. This means that there are too many chemicals in the river such as ‘phosphorous’ which can cause algal blooms which can affect the amount of oxygen available in the water and harm wildlife.
What’s causing this?
There are a number of factors which can increase phosphate levels. This includes how we treat wastewater before it’s returned to the environment. Our modelling of the River Usk for example shows that our assets (i.e. our treatment works, Combined Storms Overflows or CSOs) are responsible for between 21% - 23% of the phosphates in the main water bodies, with CSOs only responsible for 1%. The remainder – over 75% - is caused by other factors such as agricultural run-off and animal faeces, urban surface water drainage, misconnected drains, as well as private septic tanks.
However, we understand that this is an important matter for local residents, and we are committed to playing our part to doing what we can to reduce our impact on the river Usk.
Our investment
Over the next three years, we’re investing over £10 million in the community of Usk to improve the way our treatment works operates and also reduce the number of spills that come from our Combined Storm Overflow. To achieve this, we will be working at these sites but also on the sewer network within the highway. This is to ensure that our sewers have enough capacity to deal with the waste that it receives and treats before safely returning it to the local environment.
What are we doing?
We have a significant amount of work to do which will take time, but we are committed to making continuous improvement year on year. That’s why our work will be carried out over the next three years in the following phases:
What are we doing?
Just before Christmas, we completed our work to upgrade the assets at the Sewerage Pumping Station. This included installing a screening chamber which will remove any heavy particles – such as rags, wet wipes and large objects – from the waste water that the station receives.
Our sewer network relies on gravity for waste to be taken away from homes and businesses. Where this is not possible, the Sewerage Pumping Station will help pump the waste to the local wastewater treatment works where it can be safely treated. We’ll be making improvements to the network that runs between the sewer pumping station and the wastewater treatment works, increasing its capacity so more waste can be treated instead of using the CSOs, allowing the treated waste water to be returned safely to the environment.
By transferring more waste to the wastewater treatment works, we need to ensure that it has the capacity to treat the waste. Using the latest technology, we’ll be installing brand new assets and storage tanks to do this.
There are sometimes factors beyond our control that may delay or change the scope of work, but we’ll always minimise any potential disruption where possible. Phases 2 and 3 are currently in the planning and design stages and will be carried out within the next three years. Once we are ready to start work, we’ll let you know.
In Your Area
We know our work can sometimes cause disruption, and we want to leave the community in a better place. If you’re fundraising for projects to benefit the community, you could receive funding from a share of £10,000 .
If you are a community organisation and would like to be in with a chance of receiving a share of the fund, you will need to click here and submit a Community Fund application. Within the first step of the application, you will be asked to select a category that best fits your application. Select "Project giveaway" and quote the reference "Usk Community Fund".
To be eligible, groups must be based within Usk or the NP15 post code area.
Combined Storm Overflow
CSOs play an essential role in keeping all of our homes and communities safe from the risk of flooding during heavy rain. Click here to find out more.
River Water Quality
Over the last few months, we have given considerable time and resource to review our plans for investment, investigations and evidence gathering, customer communication, stakeholder engagement and the wider reporting of data relating to the operation of our assets. We have challenged our approach and have a plan on how we will play our part in helping to improve river water quality. Click here to find out more.
Frequently Asked Questions
During heavy rain storms, more water can find its way into our pipes than they are designed to cope with, so they have been designed to safely relieve the pressure on our systems. This is done through having release points - known as Combined Storm Overflows or CSOs - built into the system which release into watercourses.
Without these release points, the sewerage system would back up causing sewage flooding to buildings, streets, highways – or worse still cause toilets to overflow inside properties.
You can read more about them here.
During heavy rain storms, more water can find its way into our pipes than they are designed to cope with, so they have been designed to safely relieve the pressure on our systems. This is done through having release points - known as Combined Storm Overflows or CSOs - built into the system which release into watercourses.
Without these release points, the sewerage system would back up causing sewage flooding to buildings, streets, highways – or worse still cause toilets to overflow inside properties.
You can read more about them here.
There are a number of factors which can increase phosphate levels. This includes how we treat wastewater before it’s returned to the environment. Our modelling of the River Usk for example shows that our assets (i.e. our treatment works, Combined Storms Overflows or CSOs) are responsible for between 21% - 23% of the phosphates in the main water bodies, with CSOs only responsible for 1%. The remainder – over 75% - is caused by other factors such as agricultural run-off and animal faeces, urban surface water drainage, misconnected drains, as well as private septic tanks.
However, we understand that this is an important matter for local residents, and we are committed to playing our part to doing what we can to reduce our impact on the river Usk.
Between now and the end of 2025, we are investing £10 million in the area of Usk to make improvements to the way our sewer pumping station and waste water treatment works operate. We have a significant amount of work to do which will take time, but we are committed to making continuous improvement year on year. That’s why our work will be carried out over the next three years in the following phases:
- Phase 1 – Work at Usk Sewer Pumping Station - We’re upgrading the assets at the local Sewer Pumping Station to install a screening chamber. This will remove any heavy particles – such as rags, wet wipes and large objects – from the waste water that the station receives. This work is underway and will be completed by the middle of November.
- Phase 2 –Work to transfer more waste to the WwTW - Our sewer network relies on gravity for waste to be taken away from homes and businesses. Where this is not possible, the Sewerage Pumping Station will help pump the waste to the local wastewater treatment works where it can be safely treated. We’ll be making improvements to the network that runs between the sewer pumping station and the wastewater treatment works, increasing its capacity so more waste can be treated instead of using the CSOs, allowing the treated waste water to be returned safely to the environment.
- Phase 3 – Building new assets at Usk Wastewater Treatment Works - By transferring more waste to the wastewater treatment works, we need to ensure that it has the capacity to treat the waste. Using the latest technology, we’ll be installing brand new assets and storage tanks to do this.
There are sometimes factors beyond our control that may delay or change the scope of work, but we’ll always minimise any potential disruption where possible. Phases 2 and 3 are currently in the planning and design stages and will be carried out within the next three years. Once we are ready to start work, we’ll let you know.
Your water and waste services should not be impacted while we carry out our work, but should this change we will let you know.
In March 2021 we carried out biological and water quality surveys on the river – both upstream and downstream of the CSO in Usk. The results showed that the CSO had not adversely affected the water quality and that the discharged from the CSO has no discernible impact on the macroinvertebrate communities of the river Usk. However, this does not mean that the CSO is operating as it should which is why we are carrying out work over the next three years.
We will continue to carry out water quality and ecological assessments as we carry out our work.
The majority of our CSOs (over 99%) are monitored through Event and Duration Monitoring and the total number and duration of those discharges are reported annually to environmental regulators- this is in line with the requirements of the regulator. On Usk CSO in particular, we have set up a spill alert which sends an email notification. This has been added to the facility we run for our Bathing Waters. However, we recognise that this is not enough and are working with other Water Companies in England to provide real time spill monitoring of all CSO discharges within one hour of operation.
We also monitor our other assets such as our wastewater treatment works and pumping stations. These assets report through to our telemetry system and are monitored by a central team, who are notified of any abnormal operation through an alarm system and are graded for operational intervention and response.