Meeting on Brixham cryptosporidium outbreak
South West Water is answering questions on its response to the outbreak
South West Water will tonight be answering questions - about the cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham.
At one point - in May - around 16-thousand properties were affected by the water virus, which causes sickness and diorrhea.
Following public pressure the initial 15-pounds compensation was raised to over 200.
The meeting is at the town's Scala Hall between 6pm and 7;30pm.
It comes as South West Water's given a statement on what's been going on since the boil water notice was lifted.
Richie Adams, Head of Network Services at South West Water, says:
"During the Brixham incident we installed ultraviolet treatment (UV) and microfiltration interventions at the inlet and outlet points of both Hillhead and Boohay reservoirs to provide a triple layer of protection against contamination.
"We also installed microfiltration in each supply zone. We have been checking these filters regularly and carrying out adjustments to ensure they are operating exactly as they should be.
"We have had a team of colleagues on site since May who are taking the opportunity to complete additional work on the network.
Routine weekly sampling
"This work has included inspecting and cleaning the tanks at Boohay and Hillhead service reservoirs, ensuring that they have a regular turnover of water and we continue to carry out routine weekly sampling to check the water quality.
"We’ve replaced a water main supplying the cottages near to Hillhead Reservoir and the properties adjacent to Hillhead Farm and we’ve replaced one of the outlet mains from Hillhead into Brixham.
"Our other work in the area has been focussed on reinstating the work sites. We are now putting cladding around the UV and microfiltration interventions to make them permanent and to protect against weather conditions.
"We are still carrying out regular enhanced testing on the network which is beyond our standard level of testing.
We are sampling from seven sample locations in the network for cryptosporidium and we are publishing the results on our website to provide reassurance to customers.
This involves continuously flowing a sample of water through a filter cartridge, which is exchanged at regular intervals and analysed at our laboratory.
We are also taking regular microbiological samples from the outlets of Hillhead and Boohay service reservoirs; this suite of analysis includes coliform, enterococci and clostridia.
"We will review to ensure this never happens again"
Thankfully incidents such as this are very rare in respect of drinking water in the region and the UK as a whole, and we will fully compile and review our key learnings from this event to ensure this never happens again.
We’ve continued to support customers and businesses in the area who were affected, issuing compensation to all customers, with another 4,000 homes and businesses receiving additional compensation due to illness or loss of business.
We have been working with local businesses and have been supporting the tourism industry to play our part in attracting visitors back to the area.
We will continue to work closely with public health authorities to ensure that all safety standards are met and that we all learn from this issue.
We know the impact that this event had on the town, and we are sorry for this.
We want to reassure our customers that we continue to work hard to give you confidence that the network is performing exactly as it should be and that an event such as this never happens again in our region.