RAPID clears West Country resource scheme to continue development

RAPID has cleared the Mendip Quarries water resource scheme to proceed to the next stage of development.

The scheme, proposed by Wessex Water and South West Water, involves repurposing a quarry to store 28.5m cubic meters of water. The reservoir would be fed by a combination of groundwater and surface water from an enhanced River Avon abstraction licence, providing a water resource benefit of up to 46 megalitres per day.

Two treatment and conveyance proposals have been developed:

• surface water will be treated to potable standards and transferred to an existing Wessex Water service reservoir, located near Warminster in Wiltshire; and

• surface water will be treated to raw water discharge standards and transferred to the River Stour in Dorset for subsequent downstream abstraction and treatment to potable water standards at an existing water treatment works supplying Bournemouth Water.

RAPID cleared the scheme to proceed to Gate 3 under existing funding allowances.