Our waste water services

We take our responsibility to protect Yorkshire's stunning environment very seriously so much so that we're currently spending £250 million on our waste water treatment works. 

Over the next 25 years we'll be investing further to comply with a wide range of new environmental guidelines.

This includes the Water Framework Directive which is the most substantial piece of European legislation to date, requiring all inland and coastal waters to reach 'good status' by 2015.

Recent achievements

• As part of our riverlife initiative the investment in our waste water treatment works has seen a huge improvement in the quality of the region's rivers, boosting fish and wildlife and regenerating the riversides in cities like, Leeds, Wakefield and Hull.

• We've dramatically reduced the number of serious pollution incidents involving our 612 sewage treatment works and more than 30,000 kilometres of sewers.
• We were recently named by Business in the Community as a National Example Of Excellence for environmental management.
• Our £120m CoastCare programme saw the construction of new, state-of-the-art waste water treatment facilities along the East Coast to improve bathing water, helping many popular Yorkshire tourist resorts to fly coveted European Blue Flags - see which resorts are flying the flag

What we're planning to do

• We'll continue with the £250 million investment in our waste water treatment works as part of our commitment to the Freshwater Fish Directive (FFD).
• Working closely with the Environment Agency we're proposing to spend £415 million between 2010 and 2015 on environmental improvements to our sewerage service.
• We're spending £39 million to resolve sewer flooding at 386 properties and outdoor flooding at 88 locations across Yorkshire.
• We're investing £90 million to upgrade and replace combined sewer overflows across the region and improving river water quality. 
• Over the next few years our top 25 waste water treatment sites, serving 75% of our region, will be 'shining stars' which means they will be the best we've ever built, will look fantastic and will be more resistant to flooding.  We'll also have set new standards for running them. 
• By 2020 all our sites will be shining stars!