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21
Aug
Harrogate Spring Water’s latest plans prompt calls for wastewater assessment
An application by Harrogate Spring Water’s to install a water tank at its headquarters has prompted calls for an up-to-date assessment of the company’s wastewater.
The Stray Ferret revealed last week that Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by French multinational Danone, is seeking planning permission to create a water tank enclosure building at its headquarters on Harlow Moor Road.
The company has a licence to extract 464 million litres of water a year from three boreholes.
It said in planning documents that one of the boreholes has naturally high levels of iron and manganese and “a significant amount of water” was required to remove it during the production process. The water tank will help with this process.
The application prompted environmental campaigner Sarah Gibbs and local councillor Mike Schofield to call for an up-to-date assessment of wastewater from Harrogate Spring Water’s site on Harlow Moor Road.
Sarah Gibbs
They say the planning documents raise questions about water quality from the borehole with high levels of iron and manganese.
Yorkshire Water’s trade-effluent consent, which permits Harrogate Spring Water to discharge business or industrial liquid waste into public sewers, has not been reviewed since 2009, and does not mention high levels of iron or manganese.
Sarah Gibbs, who led the Save Rotary Wood campaign to prevent Harrogate Spring Water from expanding into the Pinewoods, said:
What looked at first like a fairly simple application for a water tank has led us to a much bigger question about the water going through this operation. The company’s own historic assessment tells us that iron and manganese are removed from the borehole water and that the treatment process produces effluent which goes to the public sewer.
Yorkshire Water has now told us there is no record of manganese or iron in the company’s effluent in Yorkshire Water’s database, and that the trade-effluent consent has not been reviewed since 2009. That doesn’t mean there is a pollution problem, and we are not alleging that any consent has been breached. But if production is increasing, we think there should be an up-to-date water balance showing how much water is abstracted, how much is bottled, how much becomes wastewater, and the quantities of iron and manganese in that effluent.
Cllr Mike Schofield.
Cllr Mike Schofield, a member of the Green and Independents group at North Yorkshire Council whose Harlow & St George’s division includes Harrogate Spring Water’s headquarters, said:
A water tank might sound like a simple piece of infrastructure, but if it forms part of increased production, then the council needs to understand the consequences of that increase. How much water is being discharged; does it contain excess iron and manganese and how is that being monitored? And has Yorkshire Water checked that their consent, which hasn’t been reviewed since 2009, remains adequate?
If there's no problem, the evidence should show that. But the answers should be on the table before the council makes its decision.
A Harrogate Spring Water spokesperson said:
Harrogate Spring Water has a long-standing commitment to responsible water stewardship. The business complies with all discharge conditions of our effluent stream and Yorkshire Water has visibility of our discharge arrangements. We operate under strict regulatory controls and sustainable extraction limits set by the Environment Agency, with regular monitoring to safeguard local water resources.
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