South West Water Limited – AMP7 Discolouration

Notice under regulation 28(4) of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 (as amended)

Reference: SWT-2018-00004

Version Number: 3

Water undertaker as appointed under section 6 of the Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended): South West Water Limited, with registered number 02366665 (hereinafter called ‘the Company’).

Assets Affected:

• Restormel East ZCW7
• St Cleer ZCW9
• Lowermoor ZCW10
• St Cleer East (ZPL1)

Details of this Notice:

1. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (‘the Inspectorate’) has received a regulation 28(1) report of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 (as amended) (‘the Regulations’) from the Company dated 20 September 2018 , which states that there is or has been a significant risk of supplying water within various water supply zones (and associated assets as applicable) that could constitute a potential danger to human health or could be unwholesome.
2. Consequently, this Notice is served on the Company by the Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State, under regulation 28(4) for the assets listed above, for risks associated with:

Description of Risk	Hazard/ Hazardous Event/ Parameter	Hazard I D
Consumer acceptability (Discolouration)	Iron	Multiple Hazard ID’s, for example: ZCW9 St Cleer Supply Zone – 79703
Consumer acceptability (Discolouration)	Manganese	Multiple Hazard ID’s, for example: ZCW9 St Cleer Supply Zone – 79704
Consumer acceptability (Discolouration)	Discolouration	Multiple Hazard ID’s, for example: ZCW9 St Cleer Supply Zone – 79726

Table 1: Table of the hazards, hazardous events, and/or parameters covered by this Notice, including the Hazard I D numbers and the description of risks.

3. The Company are required to satisfy the following requirements.

The date given is that until or by which the requirements must be maintained or satisfied, as appropriate.

Requirements:

(a) To maintain the following measures for the period specified in each case:

1. Undertake regulatory and enhanced monitoring from treatment works and the water supply zones identified as being at risk of discolouration.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
2. Investigate any failure of the standard and record and monitor customer contacts in appropriate detail and trend data to inform the forward programme of work.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
3. Deliver a programme of planned flushing, based on WQ monitoring data/consumer contact rates and patterns/risk assessment.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
4. Undertake reactive flushing following consumer contacts; events or water quality failures.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
5. Investigate the need and extend where appropriate the number of trunk main conditioning schemes.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
6. Optimisation of existing treatment processes with particular regard to removal of manganese and other parameters relevant to discolouration.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.
7. Maintain a risk based programme of service reservoir inspection and cleaning.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice.

(b) To review, revise or make operational the following measures, by the dates specified in each case:

1. Short term measure: Determine the Water Supply Zones to be prioritised in this notice, following a review at the start of AMP7 when the impacts of existing notice have been realised and annually thereafter.
   Date: Complete
2. Short term measure: Deliver an operational flushing plan, targeting the highest risk zones each year using a dynamic risk-based approach to determine flushing priorities.
   Date: Ongoing until 31 December 2024
3. Medium term measure: Develop a further list of candidate trunk main conditioning schemes and deliver them at a pace of 5 per year.
   Date: Ongoing until 31 December 2024
4. Long term measure: Complete enhanced operational flushing as defined in step b(i) to achieve (in combination with other measures set out below) a target level of <1.2 contact per 1000 population regionally by the end of the AMP.
   Date: 31 December 2024
5. Long term measure: Complete mains renewal schemes identified during PR19 planning process.
   Date: 31 December 2024
6. Long term measure: Continue regional implementation of trunk main conditioning as identified in section (b)3.
   Date: Ongoing until revocation of notice

(c) To audit whether the measures have been effective by the following means:

1. Confirm the strategy for auditing the effectiveness of the above measures.  
   • Trunk main conditioning and DOMS flushing schemes delivered against plan.
     Date: Complete.
   • Enhanced water quality monitoring for discolouration parameters including; iron, manganese and turbidity.
     Date: For the duration of this notice 
   • Individual water supply zone consumer contact rate below 1.5 per 1000 population following completion and implementation of above measures.
     Date: By 31 December 2024
   • Regional consumer contact rate < 1.2 per 1000 population following completion and implementation of above measures. 
     Date: By 31 December 2024

2. Implement, and keep under continuous review, the audit strategy defined in measure (c)1.
   Date: Following completion of measure (c)1. onwards.

(d) Not to supply water for regulation 4(1) purposes from the water supply zones specified, or not to so supply unless the specified conditions below are satisfied:

1. Not applicable.

(e) To provide the following information in the time and manner specified below to enable monitoring of progress towards the mitigation of the risks:

1. Provide a progress report annually.
   Date: by 31 January each year
2. Complete a review of which zones will be prioritised for this scheme, based on results from previous notices, and the results of previous discolouration strategies.
   Date: 31 October 2019 and for each year of the notice
3. Completion of planning, design and procurement arrangements.  
   Date: Complete
4. Completion delivery of the AMP7 long term flushing, trunk main conditioning and mains replacement programmes.
   Date: 31 January 2025
5. Submit the audit strategy for auditing the effectiveness of the measures, as specified in measure (c)1.
   Date: Complete
6. Submit any revisions of the audit strategy produced under measure (c)2.
   Date: Within 1 month of a revision
7. Submit a report in the event that any completed measures of this Notice need to be altered in any way, for any reason.
   Date: Ongoing for the duration of this Notice
8. Submit a satisfactory completion report accompanied by a revised regulation 28(1) report with Board level Director sign-off.
   Date: 31 January 2026

Further Details of this Notice:

4. Any product or substance used as a result of the requirements in this Notice must comply with regulation 31.
5. Under regulation 28(6) the Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, may by notice served on the Company, revoke or vary this Notice.
6. Failure by the Company to comply with this Notice may result in enforcement proceedings under section 18 of the Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended).

Signed

Nicholas Adjei
Deputy Chief Inspector, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
2 July 2024
Reference: SWT-2018-00004 v3