The Ilkley Clean River Group has issued a letter regarding residents concerns with Yorkshire Water's plan to construct a wetland off Denton Road in Ilkley.
We are aware of residents concerned about the new Integrated Constructed Wetland that Yorkshire Water are building as part of the new scheme to clean up the river at Ilkley. Many of us in the Town have been working for the last 6 years to get an upgrade to the sewage works, and to stop raw sewage being dumped in ourn river at Ilkley but also upstream at Addingham.
To do this we applied for Bathing status becoming the first river in the country to be awarded this, which in turn got us testing, signage and the opportunity to secure the plans and investment at Ilkley.
All the new upgrade works are as a result of securing bathing status and the massive ongoing lobbying of the regulators to find a route to a rapid plan for our river. Many of you will remember a tthe first Town Meeting about this we were told it would take 30 years. Here we are 6 years later with a plan that will be up and running in 2026. Its a massive achievement and a fantastic benefit for our water quality.
The first phase was the new sewer under the town, to provide additional storage capacity when it rains so untreated sewage isn't spilling into the river along the footpath, or overflowing into our river at the CSOs.
This next phase of development means that raw sewage will be dumped no more than 10 times a year and only once in the bathing season at the sewage works and all along the stretch. It's currently between 80 and 120 a year! Our sewage will now get additional treatment, by the Integrated Constructed Wetland - that's an additional step in the treatment process to improve the quality of the treated sewage. This nature based solution has been welcomed by environmental groups in Ilkley.
Overall this is a huge improvement in treatment capacity and quality, using nature based solutions where possible. The next phase will be further treatment of the 'treated' sewage to reduce phosphate.
If the plan does not go ahead this year we will loose bathing status (as it runs out after 5 years if there hasn't been an effort to clean up the river) which means there isn't a legal imperative to reduce raw sewage dumping, and we also loose the impetus for the funding. We are pleased to see Yorkshire Water cracking on with the upgrades whilst it waited for the EA to finally consent to the plan. We have to thank the Town Council inviting YW and the EA to the TC meeting in February to unlock this final part of the jigsaw.
All of this is good news for our river. Overall our water will be getting a massive upgrade in the treatment process and this beneficially will impact water quality. We are currently in discussion with YW and the EA on how the quality of the river's water will be monitored, including the role of citizen science. Our ongoing discussions relate to ensuring the wetland is properly maintained, and we will be monitoring this closely.
We also of course want to understand the overall impact of a nature based solution on our river water quality once the scheme is in place to ensure it is doing enough to protect people and wildlife.
There have been specific questions raised and those of you that get our newsletters will be fully appraised of all of this.