Water Supply
Plas Panteidal is not provided water from a utility company and the cost to link it to a public supply is prohibitive. It has its own private water supply which is maintained by PPEML.
Prior to PPEML taking control, the water supply was intermittent, sometimes running dry for several weeks at a time and it was always discoloured and contaminated with harmful bacteria. It was dangerous to consume and there is evidence of illness caused from people drinking it.
PPEML looked at providing a reliable and safe supply from the outset, it not a simple task and is still ongoing. The geography of the area and state of existing distribution pipework makes the task even more difficult. The original water source came from surface water running across a field of cattle and sheep, you can imagine what went in to it. Mud, grass, stones and unmentionables frequently blocked the pipes and required invasive action to clear them. When it arrived at the site water was stored in VERY rusty iron tanks which leaked and were in real danger of collapsing. The only sanitising was a re-purposed swimming pool filter which had not been cleaned for some 20 years.
To overcome the problems at source, an agreement was negotiated with the owner of adjacent land to build a small dam to trap large debris and a concrete platform on which some pre-filtering equipment was installed. The source is now taken 'upstream' of the contamination and nothing large enough to block the feed pipe can get into it.
Next, a trench was dug from the new source to the site itself, this is approximately 1.3Km long and a new pipe was layed in it. The old iron tanks are now decommissioned and new plastic ones used instead, these are of a design approved by WRAS for storing public water supplies. A new building was erected to house a further inlet filter, distribution filter, acidity correction machine, pumps and an ultra-violet steriliser to kill any remaining bacteria. The extremely poor access to all this work explains why it took so long to complete. Nothing bigger than 5 microns can now enter the pipes feeding the properties, this is about one quarter of the width of a human hair, previously whole leaves came through the system!
At present, the water testing shows it to be free from harmful bacteria but the results indicate the amount of dissolved iron is above the permitted level and the clarity doesn't meet the 'colour' specification. The iron is naturally occuring at the source but impossible to remove by filtering alone, some additional chemical process will have to be added. The iron level is not dangerous to health but until it is brought under the limit, the public health authorities will not declare the water fit for consumption. The discolouration is from tannins released by peat near the source, it isn't dangerous but is easthetically displeasing.
As a side action, PPEML are replacing some of the distribution pipes. Sadly, most of the pipes are under-sized and buried in the ground with no records kept of their locations or routes. The hope is that by abandoning the old pipes and replacing with new wider bore ones, the flow of water will improve in properties where there is currently low pressure at times.
