Euro chief to visit Yorkshire Water’s key environmental projects at Leeds, Hull, Bridlington and Eggborough
12/05/1999
One of the European Union's top environmental politicians will visit the region on Monday (May 17) for a tour of some of Yorkshire Water's most significant environmental projects underway in Leeds, Hull, Bridlington and Eggborough.
Ken Collins, chairman of the EU's all-powerful Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection Committee, will arrive at the company's Eccup water treatment works on the edge of Leeds, where he will be given a guided tour of the reservoir site which has just seen a new fully automated works constructed at a cost of £22 million. This will be primarily used to treat raw water abstracted from the River Ouse.
From Eccup Mr Collins will travel to the company's £28 million ARBRE power station at Eggborough, North Yorkshire. ARBRE - ARable Biomass Renewable Energy - is Europe's first wood-fuelled power station and, when it becomes operational later this year, will produce electricity by using wood chips from forest residues and short rotation coppice to generate gas to drive the turbines.
He will then continue his journey to Bridlington where a new £13 million "CoastCare" waste water treatment works is being built on the edge of the town at Flashdales.
This new plant, which is scheduled to be in use by early next summer, is part of the company's £120 million CoastCare programme of works which will see new works being built along the East Coast. These are to comply with tough new European environmental regulations.
Mr Collins's final appointment of the day is a tour of the £200 million HumberCare waste water treatment works in Hull.
The Hull scheme is the largest civil engineering project of its kind currently underway in Europe and dwarfs anything the company has previously undertaken. Currently two giant boring machines are tunnelling their way under the city creating a 10.5km sewer tunnel, 3.6 metres in diameter.
Yorkshire Water's chief executive, Dr Kevin Bond, said: "Mr Collins has been one of Europe's leaders in pressing for higher environmental standards and this is a great opportunity to show him the practical results.
"These include two of our biggest capital programmes - CoastCare and HumberCare - which have come about as a direct result of EU legislation. During the day he will able to see for himself the tremendous work being done to comply with these regulations in Yorkshire."
