Dramatic rescues at Mayflower Water Treatment Works - South West Water

11th April 2017

South West Water's Mayflower construction site at Roborough, just outside Plymouth, was the scene of a dramatic rescue during a fire service training exercise.

South West Water is building the new £60million state-of-the-art Mayflower Water Treatment Works to serve Plymouth and the surrounding area. It will replace the outdated treatment works at Crownhill in Plymouth, which was built in the 1950s and is reaching the end of its useful life.

The site gave crews from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service the perfect venue to put their training into practice at the weekend.

In the scenario, firefighters used specialist equipment to rescue two casualties (manikins) from the base of a concrete structure.

South West Water project manager Mike Court said: "Construction sites of this nature are few and far between so we were delighted to be able to offer Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service the opportunity to use our site for these training exercises.

"It was absolutely fascinating seeing the firefighters in action."

Steve Hill, Station Manager from Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, explained: "The purpose of the training is to enable the crews from several fire stations to work together as a team training in an unfamiliar environment. They will be integrating their skills, knowledge and equipment to overcome different or unusual challenges, as well as gaining a familiarity with the South West Water site. The scenario is also an ideal opportunity to develop firefighters with less experience.

"We would like to thank South West Water for agreeing to host this exercise, it is invaluable for our crews to train in realistic scenarios such as this."

Work started on site in April 2016 and Mayflower is on schedule to become operational in September 2018, with the existing Crownhill works retiring from service a few months later.  Around 150 people will be employed during construction. The project is South West Water's biggest single capital investment in its highly-rated 2015-20 business plan.

More information is available on the South West Water website www.southwestwater.co.uk/mayflower

Notes to editors

• Mayflower Water Treatment Works will meet the needs of Plymouth's growing population and provide a secure, high-quality drinking water supply for the wider Plymouth area for generations to come
• It will use cutting-edge treatment processes, designed and developed by leading Dutch water technology company PWNT, and tested at a prototype facility at Crownhill from June 2013 until June 2015
• The new technology uses suspended ion exchange with resin regeneration system, inline coagulation and ceramic membrane microfiltration. It is the first time that this combined technology has been used in the UK
• Global design and consultancy firm Arcadis is the main design contractor, in partnership with consulting engineers Pell Frischmann. Together they are responsible for all the design work outside of the key treatment process
• Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty is the main construction contractor, in partnership with Interserve, responsible for the construction of all infrastructure, buildings and pipelines for the new water treatment works.  

Published: 11 April 2017