Double investment helps protect North Yorkshire beck

Investment by Northumbrian Water in upgrades to two of its sites in North Yorkshire will help to protect water quality in a local watercourse.

£5.7m has been invested across the sewage treatment works at Eppleby and Aldbrough St John, delivering benefits for Aldbrough Beck.

At both locations, the work has increased the sites’ capacity, helping to cater for increased amounts of combined sewage and storm water that are a result of increased rainfall from climate change.

Alterations were made to the sites’ inlets, and new storm tank capacity. A new pumping station was also installed at Eppleby, allowing better management of flows, reducing the likelihood of spills to the beck.

Northumbrian Water’s partner, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) carried out the work on both sites.

The upgrades at Eppleby and Aldbrough St John follows work to install a new storm tank at the company’s nearby Melsonby Sewage Treatment Works (STW), which was carried out in 2023. That project, delivered with partners Esh-Stantec, will help to protect the environment from pollution caused by storms and will also support local population growth.

Ben Gilbert, Project Manager at Northumbrian Water, said: “We want our operating area to have the best rivers and coasts in the country and investment like this, protecting watercourses such as Aldbrough Beck, which ultimately flows to the River Tees, plays a really important part in that.

“Climate change, and the increased rainfall that brings, makes such investment vital, to ensure that we can meet the challenge of higher volumes entering our site, so the completion of these works is a really positive step forward for these watercourses.”