Pride Park

“Alpheus began their involvement with Pride Park in 1997, when they took over sole control of the water treatment plant. Since then they have very competently managed the running of the plant, successfully treating over two million cubic metres of water and discharging it safely into the River Derwent. Throughout the time Alpheus have been involved with the plant, their team have been very professional in their dealings with ourselves, our consultants and the Environment Agency.” – Derby City Council

The Background

Until the mid-1990s, Pride Park was an area of heavily contaminated, derelict land east of Derby City Centre. It had been used for industrial and domestic landfill, a gas and coke works and gravel extraction. The condition of the site, owned by Derby City Council, and the high levels of contamination were hindering re-development of the land.

The Service

Derby City Council realised drastic steps were needed to help the re-development of the area for both economic and environmental reasons. The site was to undergo ground remediation and this process involved the treatment of the leachate running off the landfill before it entered the River Derwent.

Alpheus was engaged by Derby City Council to take part in this process in partnership with Ove Arup & Partners and Purac-Morrison consortium.

The Implementation

First a 10m deep, 3km long cut-off wall was constructed. It encircled the site with abstraction boreholes, pumping contaminated groundwater from within the wall and included monitoring boreholes to check groundwater levels on both sides of the wall. A wastewater treatment plant was then installed to treat the contaminated groundwater prior to discharge to the river.

Alpheus secured the contract to operate and maintain the treatment plant for a 15-year period from late 1997 and subsequently secured a five-year contract extension. The contract includes day-to-day running of the plant, managing utilities, sampling and analysis, maintenance of on-line monitors, dipping of monitoring boreholes, grounds maintenance and maintenance of the abstraction borehole pumps.

The Outcomes

Since taking over the day-to-day running of the plant, Alpheus has delivered a major improvement to overall plant performance with excellent discharge consent compliance and significant utility costs savings. With reliable mechanical and electrical operation, a considerable reduction in operating costs has been attained. Electricity costs have been lowered by more than 25% plus analytical and chemical costs by 80% due to plant optimisation and a reduced sampling regime.

The subsequent re-development of Pride Park has made a substantial and positive contribution to the local economy, community and the environment.