A recent job saw Dales Water tasked with taking a large food production site off mains water and onto a borehole supply.
Based outside York the site in question used vast quantities of mains water to produce products for the vegetarian sector at their meat free plant. Whilst mains ‘did the job’ it fell short in two areas:
- It was becoming prohibitively expensive
- The limitations of supply meant the business could not expand to meet demand, limiting business growth and the full potential of the company
After initial consultation and visiting the site we were commissioned to install a brand new borehole supply system.
Works included:
- Hydrogeological prognosis
- New borehole design & installation
- Pumping plant, borehole headworks and chamber detail construction
- Application and approval of abstraction licence, including pump testing and formal application
- Directional drilling (trenchless) for pipework installation under a road way
- Cutting off the mains supply completely to remove the need for mains integration
- Water analysis
We carried out all preliminary liaison with the Environment Agency to facilitate drilling of the new production borehole and shortly after we drilled the borehole to 59m depth with the borehole capable of producing 15m3/hr (15,000 litres per hour) – more than enough for the sites current demand, future expansion plans and far in excess of what the mains water could provide. After the borehole was drilled we tested the borehole to Environment Agency specification and produced the required data for the full licence application. Finally we completed the final pumping plant installation, borehole headworks to Private Water Supplies regulations standards and chamber detail to provide a secure and appropriate installation for the sites requirements long into the future.
For this particular job our Ditchwitch Jet-Trac came in very handy for installing pipework from the production borehole to the point of use. By using the Ditchwitch to drill without trenches we minimised disruption on site avoiding any down time for the business.
After training staff on using the new system and full hand over the site is now fully operational using purely borehole water. This has resulted not only in significant cost savings (estimated payback period of 18 months) but also in a more reliable supply which has allowed the business to roll out their expansion plans to ramp up food production and meet demand.
