A water project in Scotland which saves water and energy has been given the World of Difference Award by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).
Scottish Water’s Glencorse Water Project was given the award for its pioneering work at a water treatment works which supplies nearly 50,000 Edinburgh residents with high quality drinking water.
Glencorse is now home to Scotland’s largest green roof, an efficient new water treatment process and a new hydro-electric turbine.
New pipelines, leading down from reservoirs 25 miles away, were not only re-routed to avoid badger and otter sites, but were also laid using the world’s first mobile pipe production plant.
This meant pipes could be hauled directly into the pipeline work area, resulting in a massive 75% reduction in lorry journeys and a reduction of 1,530 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
If you’re with me so far that’s good, because it gets tricky now. The award was also given for the treatment process: "The main process requirement for Glencorse was for a flocculation stage and a rapid gravity filtration stage. This presented an opportunity to incorporate a Counter Current Dissolved Air Flotation Filtration (COCODAFF) process". Got that?
I managed to understand that the COCODAFF has a very high filtration rate and therefore water needs to be filtered fewer times.
Essentially, it’s all good. Glencorse saved water, they saved energy, they cut their carbon footprint, they didn’t hurt the otters, and the countryside’s still beautiful. And for that they were, quite rightly, given an award.
Geoff Aitkenhead, Scottish Water’s asset management director, said: "Scottish Water is delighted that the Glencorse Water Project has received this outstanding international accolade from CIWEM.
"The facility is proof that such large-scale projects can be sustainable, non-obtrusive and built with the consent and consideration of the neighbouring community in mind."
Here at BigGreenSmile we don’t sell COCODAFF’s, but our Brita Marella Hydration Pack is currently half price, complete with filters. Or, as we like to call them, F’s.
[Image: PhillipC]
