Ilkley Clean River Campaign 

30 Nelson Rd 

Ilkley LS29 8HN 

Mr Richard Flint

Yorkshire Water

Western House

Western Way, 

Bradford

West Yorkshire BD6 2SZ

20th August 2019 

Dear Mr Flint 

It was really helpful to meet you with John Grogan on the 9th August. Thank you to  you and Emily for your ongoing collaboration, and we appreciate your intent to  secure quality water services for Ilkley.  

We covered the following issues and it would be helpful to have a response to these: 1. Maintenance.

Please can you confirm that Ilkley will have a fully operational maintenance  programme to secure the infrastructure to an acceptable public standard  including (a) no spills along public footpaths and (b) ongoing investigation and  management of infiltration. Please can you confirm the date when the current  problems along the footpath of sewage spilling out of manholes will be solved  and the status of infiltration and the plan to solve these issues.

2. Upgrade to prevent solids on the riverbank.  

We demonstrated that the upgrades to Ashlands WWT have not solved the  problem of solids being discharged from the overflow into the river. Please  provide confirmation that this will be properly managed with clean up  operations when there are solids discharged through the grills onto the  riverbank. Are there further steps you can take to ensure that solids do not  end up in the river/on the riverbank from the storm overflow?  

3. Storm Overflows.  

Yorkshire Water told the Times reporter that there had been 19 spills this year  (2019) based on EDM. Emily Brady has told us that the EDM is not correctly  reporting spills as its not fully commissioned. When will there be accurate  data on discharges into the Wharfe? Whilst there were apparently 19  discharges, what duration were these and please can you provide updated  information for the year to date including number of events and duration of  these.  

4. UWWTD.

Other companies are complying with the UWWTD, what plans does YW have  to comply? In our view the UWWTD is not being adhered to as it states all  normal sewage should be treated with overflow only in exceptional

circumstances, not in regular rainfall. In 2019 we have had one exceptional  event on the 16th March.  

5. Bathing Water Status.  

If we get bathing water status we will need improvements in the treated  outflow. We understand that bathing water status in other areas in the UK has  led to UV disinfection being installed. Please can you confirm if this can be  brought forward along with early implementation of phosphate stripping to  secure immediate improvements in the treated outflow quality given the public  use of the river as provided in the paper at our meeting.  

Please also note that the public is swimming in the river downstream of the  swing footbridge by the WWT outflows at times of high use. Clearly the pubic  has no idea what they are swimming in. Our testing shows 35,500 E Coli cfus  per 100mls in dry, low spill conditions and 43,500 E coli cfus per 100mls in  wet, high spill conditions. These are 40(dry weather) to 50 (wet weather)  times higher than the EA bathing water quality limits. This is a serious public  health risk. What responsibility does Yorkshire Water take for protecting the  public?  

Please note the attached data on public use of the river.  

6. Citizen Testing 

Please note we are undertaking citizen testing downstream of the treated  outflow to see how long it takes to dissipate 

We also discussed the quality of the water upstream from Ilkley. We are  intending to test the length of the river at least as far as Bolton Abbey but  possibly further dependent on results. Please can you provide a Map of CSO  and Sewage works up to the head of Wharfedale. 

Yours sincerely 

Karen Shackleton, Prof Rick Battarbee, Prof Becky Malby, Kathleen Roberts, Stephen Fairbourn

Ilkley Clean River Campaign

On behalf of Ilkley Town residents.  

Supported by Climate Action Ilkley.

Appendix 1: results of the count at Ilkley 

The results of the counts on days where the usage is high is as follows: