Full site drainage survey at Padeswood
Heidelberg Materials’ North Wales cement works takes hard look at drainage system to protect environment
A SPECIALIST team from Lanes Drainage Services UK is carrying out a full site CCTV drainage survey as part of planned maintenance at Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood cement works, near Mold, in Flintshire, North Wales.
Drainage engineers from Lanes’ Chester depot will create a drainage map of the foul and surface water systems, detailing the composition and condition of all drainage assets at the site.
Rachael Humphreys, sustainability analyst at Heidelberg Materials UK, said: ‘It’s important that our drainage systems are maintained to a high standard. We have a statutory responsibility to ensure no potential contaminants leave our site, and clearly one of the key pathways for this to happen would be through the drainage system.
‘The survey report provided by Lanes will allow us to plan future maintenance tasks and demonstrate that we are meeting our regulatory responsibilities.’
Lanes are deploying a CCTV drainage survey unit supported by a jet-vac tanker at the Padeswood facility, which has been manufacturing cement for more than 70 years and is one of the area’s main employers.
The pipe system on site comprises a mix of clay and concrete pipes with diameters ranging from 150mm to 900mm, plus slot drainage.
Surface water is channelled into a 35,000-litre oil and petrol interceptor before being stored in a large on-site lagoon.
Only water tested and proven to meet standards set by National Resources Wales can be released into a brook that runs past the site.
Process water is managed separately, with some of it recycled back into the manufacturing process.
Sian Wyn Jones, area development manager at Lanes Chester, said: ‘Heidelberg Materials UK are doing exactly the right thing in assessing the condition of their drainage system.
‘It’s best practice to carry out regular site surveys as part of planned preventative maintenance. Only then can clear priorities be set for ongoing maintenance and remediation.
‘This is even more important with climate change making the weather more volatile. More frequent periods of heavy rainfall associated with global warming could increase the risk of blockage problems and flash flooding, especially if the drain lines are not regularly cleaned.’
During the full site drainage survey, which will be completed over a number of visits, the jet-vac tanker will be used to remove silt and other waste material from drain lines, leaving them clear and ready to be surveyed.
The CCTV drainage survey team will use two remote access camera systems: one is a push-rod system with a mini-camera attached to the end of flexible rod that can be pushed into narrow-diameter pipes; the other is a wheeled robotic crawler camera that can be sent along pipes.
Both systems record high-definition colour video to show the structure and condition of the pipes and allow the location of any contamination or defects to be plotted.
