A Case of Carp, Concrete & Clean Water!

Siltbuster Limited’s newly launched fully integrated HD unit has been used to help Colwell Groundworks and Construction protect a lake housing £1m of fish, while the construction company repairs the lake’s retaining wall.

The three acre lake, containing carp, perch, roach and rudd is in the grounds of Eastnor Castle, a high profile stately home and visitor attraction which nestles in the Malvern Hills.

The owners of the Castle, which is also a popular film location and wedding venue, called in Colwell to repair the lake’s dam retaining wall which was leaking.

While reviewing the £150,000 National Heritage Project, Martin Colwell, Managing Director of Colwell Groundworks and Construction could see that water pollution would be a possibility if appropriate measures were not taken. The lake itself, comes up to the top of the wall, flows over the edge and drops onto a lower level of cobbles some 15 ft below, before dispersing into a stream which ultimately feeds Ledbury and Malvern. Any repairs to those surfaces, involving concrete could instantly present a pollution problem while the concrete was curing.

Martin Colwell says: “We obviously couldn’t have run off water from the new concrete going either into the lake or the stream. The high pH from the concrete’s run off would have been toxic to the fish in the lake, and would present further issues downstream.”

Eastnor Castle is situated in an area of ‘Outstanding Natural Beauty’ and a site of ‘Special Scientific Interest.’ The project specification recognised this and instructed the construction company to take the highest level of environmental precautions to treat any water coming into contact with the concrete works.

Recognising the high level of care required, Martin Colwell called in Siltbuster Limited which specialises in providing water treatment solutions to the construction industry. The company recommended the new Siltbuster HD unit, a compact, lightweight, transportable, easy to use unit which is highly effective at treating high pH, sediment-laden water. This was perfect for Eastnor Castle and the limited space available to Colwell’s team.

The Siltbuster HD was originally created for treating high pH water generated by hydro-demolition projects however many of its features made it perfect for the Eastnor Castle project. The Siltbuster HD unit can for instance work at ground level or can be operated direct from a road-going trailer or work’s van making it easy to move around site and position. It can continuously operate at flow rates of up to 5m3/hr and can be powered from its own internal battery, making the unit ideal for use in such remote locations.

In addition, the unit contains a reusable geotextile bag which captures the larger more rapidly settling solids in the water and then uses carbon dioxide contained in onboard cylinders and an automated dosing system, to safely adjust the pH. An integrated Siltbuster lamella clarifier enables any fine waterborne particulates to settle resulting in crystal clear treated water.

The Colwell Construction team repaired the lake’s retaining wall, removed the top cappings, re-concreted the ledge, cut new stone edges and re-cobbled the drop area and allowed three days for the concrete to cure. During this time the natural overspill from the lake to the area below would continue, making the Siltbuster HD a real necessity. Colwell hired the unit for the three days and water overflowing the wall was pumped continuously to the unit for the whole duration of the works.

Martin Colwell, who has not needed to use such a system before, was impressed by its ease of use and effectiveness:

“It couldn’t have been easier. The guys from Siltbuster came and set it up and we just had to leave the unit running continuously. We were absolutely amazed by how much was extracted from the water and how clean the water was afterwards. It was absolutely brilliant”.

For more information about the new Siltbuster HD unit or any other products visit www.siltbuster.com or call 01600 772256