Experiences of an MCERTS flow meter remediation programme
Grievson, O., Anglian Water, UK
(free)
Abstract
At the beginning of 2012 Anglian Water were behind in their obligations in terms of regulated flow measurement under the Environment Agencies MCERTS Self- Monitoring of Effluent Flow by a total of 174 treatment works. This was because of a historical problem with the early installation of flow monitoring by Anglian Water coupled with the fact that there were a total of 693 sites that qualified under the MCERTS requirements, the largest in the United Kingdom
In order to address this deficiency a capital investment programme was instigated to remediate the flow measurement structures at 80 sites and certify a further 94 sites.
This paper will detail some of the key learning points that were raised as part of the £1.41 million programme in terms of the installation of flow meters for regulated flow measurement
Keywords MCERTS, Flow Measurement, Remediation programme
Introduction
At the start of 2012 Anglian Water had a total of 174 Water Recycling Centres that were not certified under the Environment Agencies MCERTS Scheme for the self-monitoring of Effluent Flow mainly due to the fact that meters were installed prior to the scheme and had subsequently failed inspections as part of the requirements under the MCERTS standards. This left Anglian Water with a large legacy of sites to bring up to the required standards. This meant that in order to bring the company up to the required standards a capital works scheme was required in order to design & build solutions for flow monitoring at 80 sites and inspect a further 94 sites to ensure that Anglian Water’s regulatory obligations were met.
The total capital programme cost was £1.28 million covering all 174 sites and ranged from a simple inspection to a rebuilding of the outfall of a treatment works costing over £100,000 involving both asbestos and CDM regulations.
This paper will summarise the whole programme and provide case studies of the problems incurred as part of the programme as well as the importance of (a) regular operation & maintenance and (b) development with technology within the industry.
