Ellon Waste Water Treatment Works Upgrade

What We Did

The investment has delivered a comprehensive upgrade of the existing WWTW, with the installation of new pumps, new screens, a new aeration system and new holding tanks. 
 
All the work took place within the boundary of the existing treatment works site, which is located between the River Ythan and Castle Road. It was delivered by Scottish Water’s alliance partner ESD, a joint venture involving MWH Treatment, Galliford Try and Binnies. 

The central challenge of the project was to ensure the treatment works could continue to operate to a high standard, even while extensive upgrade work took place to renew or replace much of the equipment involved. 

Why We Did This

Each stage of the existing treatment process has now been refurbished or upgraded to increase the site’s capacity and ensure that it can continue to meet the community’s needs for many years to come. We are very grateful for the patience and support of the local community while our team has been working on site – and hope we have succeeded in keeping any short term disruption to a minimum.

November 2022 incident

Regrettably, a serious environmental incident occurred in November 2022, which we have been responding to since. In a period of extreme weather which led to a major river spate on the Ythan, the inlet wall at the lowest part of the site - and parts of its surface water drainage system - became overwhelmed. This resulted in a significant quantity of biofilters being released to the environment.

We began clear-up and recovery immediately and so far this has included around 60 people from our local team and supply chain partners, at a cost of over £315,000.

Our investigation into this incident is now complete, and you can read about our findings and the short and long-term actions being taken to ensure that a similar incident cannot recur, by downloading the poster file below.