South West Water plans to upgrade Plymouth’s sewage treatment plant, increasing storage and reducing spill risk.
They hope to construct a new control center. It’ll have three pumps for a bigger storm tank. They’ll try their best to keep it out of sight, and the new gear won’t make too much noise later. They will also update the odor management plan after the work.
The new control center will be eight meters long, and its height will measure three meters. Plymouth saw more sewage spills in 2023. They counted over three thousand spills throughout the year.
In the southwest, spill hours almost doubled since then. Actual numbers went up by 83 percent, which comes out to be 58,249 discharges. The company said that 2023 was very wet, and it caused an increase in storm overflows, too.
They will nearly double their investment. It equals £2.5 billion by 2030 for the environment. They plan a 62% drop in storm overflow spills by 2030, compared to 2023-24 numbers. Plymouth’s waters get priority.
Marsh Mills got upgrades back in 2016/17 to prepare for Sherford’s new town. It will eventually include 5,500 brand new homes. Rebecca Smith visited the sewage plant often and wished to look at smell control efforts.
Since Sherford’s building work, bad smells got worse. People call these smells the “Plympton Pong”. Miss Smith said fans were put above machines. The fans stop smells from rising into Plympton, close by.
The smells happen because the site lacks capacity. Sewage flows through the system too slowly. Partial flow boosts septicity; waste sits. Stagnant waste without oxygen smells bad. More Sherford residents help fix the smell; once they use the loos, the smell should disappear.