ABSTRACT
RIBBLE ESTUARY WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS: AN INTEGRATED WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN TO ACHIEVE BATHING WATER COMPLIANCE P C Head and D H Crawshaw (North West Water Ltd, Warrington, UK), S K Rasaratnam and J R Klunder (North West Water Ltd, Preston, UK) As part of the United Kingdom’s programme to bring its identified bathing waters up to the standard required by the EC Bathing Water Directive, North West Water has developed an integrated waste water management plan to improve the water quality of the bathing beaches situated at the mouth of the Ribble Estuary. This plan is based on an extensive investigation to determine the most appropriate way of dealing with both base flows (flows during dry weather or moderate rain), and storm flows (overflows from combined sewerage systems during wet weather). Mathematical models were used to examine the hydraulic behaviour of the sewerage systems and the subsequent dispersion of effluent into the receiving waters.
