Water firm to invest £35m to improve river health

A water firm has said it will invest £35m to improve water quality in a North Yorkshire river.

The scheme, at Yorkshire Water's Naburn site, will reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the River Ouse.

Although harmless in small amounts, phosphorus can become damaging to human and animal life when unmanaged, according to the company.

When the work is completed in spring 2028, it will improve a 5.6-mile (9km) stretch of the Ouse.

Yorkshire Water said phosphorus is a normal part of domestic sewage and is present in shampoos and liquid detergents.

It can also wash off agricultural fields after the use of fertilisers and be released from soil, which can be difficult to control.

To remove it, Yorkshire Water said it would install ferric dosing, polymer dosing and magnetite dosing – all of which work together to remove solids and phosphorous from the wastewater during treatment.

Project manager Lucie Arger said: "The health of Yorkshire's rivers is incredibly important to us and to our customers, and reducing the levels of phosphorous in our treated wastewater is one way in which we can do our bit to improve it.

"We will also be investing significantly over the next five years to reduce the frequency and duration of storm overflow discharges into the Ouse."

The project at Naburn is one of 85 phosphorous reduction schemes that are set to be completed by 2030 in a £350m programme.

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