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The Mersey Valley Sludge Story: From Sea to Shell Green
Author(s) -
Belshaw C.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2000.tb00249.x
Subject(s) - sewage treatment , environmental science , sewage , pipeline (software) , sewage sludge , north sea , engineering , environmental engineering , waste management , oceanography , geology , mechanical engineering
The sludge from sewage‐treatment plants in the Mersey Valley has been disposed of at sea for over a hundred years. From 1897 until 1986, inland towns took advantage of the Manchester Ship Canal to provide the route to the sea. However, a decline in canal traffic in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in increased costs, and North West Water investigated cheaper alternatives. In 1981, an ambitious and radical new project commenced, i.e. the construction of an 86 km long, high‐pressure sludge pipeline, connecting Oldham with Liverpool. Sea disposal ceased in December 1998 and North West Water has constructed a new sludge processing centre at Shell Green, Widnes, to replace the shipping operation. This paper describes the history of the shipping operation and the Mersey Valley sludge pipeline, together with operating experiences, leading to the construction of the new processing centre.