Supplying Yorkshire's water
When you fill up your tea pot where does the water come from?
It comes from the tap Edna, why?
Flippin' 'eck, Mary, you're really are as daft as a brush. I meant: how does it get to your tap? You've obviously never thought about it, and neither have many other people, but Yorkshire Water work hard to get a clean and fresh constant supply to you. And it's quite an interesting journey which might surprise you.
'Round our way
Unlike some of the bottled water you'll see on supermarket shelves, your tap water doesn't travel thousands of miles before it gets to you. This means that it's not only cheaper but it's also fresher and better for the environment too. I'm sure you'd agree, Mary, that with Yorkshire water costing less than a penny for 33 glasses, anyone who buys bottled water must have more money than sense!
Your water only comes from Yorkshire where it's collected from a mixture of reservoirs, rivers and from the ground through boreholes and springs. The map below shows where the sources of supply are and the
virtual tour illustrates the journeys from raindrop-to-tap and flush-to-river.
The Yorkshire Grid
Any water we take from our rivers is always done in a sustainable way to make sure the environment is not adversely affected - all abstractions are monitored closely by the Environment Agency.
From time to time you may also notice that some of our reservoirs seem a bit low, these are usually Environmental Management Reservoirs (EMRs). Anything taken from EMRs is not used to supply your water, instead water is released into local rivers to make sure they remain flowing during dry spells and wildlife and habitats don't suffer.
Once we've collected the water we move it around the region to one of our 83 water treatment works where it is treated. Our network of underground pipes spans across our region allowing us to quickly transfer water to where it's needed most.
How is your water treated?
Our water treatment works have a big role to play in making sure that your water is safe for drinking. Before the water sees the light of day again at your tap it passes through a number of stages at our treatment works.
Once your water has been treated it's stored in big underground storage tanks, or if the area is flat in a water tower. You'll see a number of these towers dotted around Yorkshire.
Find out more about how we treat your water
Water on tap
The Yorkshire grid allows us to transfer water from one part of the region to another depending on where it's needed most, meaning that come rain or shine and wherever you are in Yorkshire, you can be assured that your water will always be on tap.
The Yorkshire Grid is operated centrally at our Regional Operation Control Centre in Bradford where we can see exactly what's going on underground across the whole of Yorkshire using state of the art computer and telemetry systems. We can instantly see where demand is changing and channel water to where it's needed most.
