We're making our way up the Hurleston flight of lochs at the
very start of the Llangochlin Canal and to the right hand side
of the lochs as you come up, there's a huge embankment and
behind that embankment is a reservoir because the
Llangochlin is used to transport water from North Wales into
Cheshire. And that's what we'll be
exploring on this edition of The Water Ropes.
There are four locks at Herleston that raise the canal
just over 30 feet and then just above the top lock is a Weir and
the water from the canal goes over the Weir and down a wide
stepped channel into the reservoir itself.
Reservoir covers about 21 acres and it's a haven for wildlife.
They're agreed on the water today as well as ducks and Swans
and there are fishing points all around and the local fishing
group says that eel have been known to be caught here.
And there's actually a footpath that runs all the way round the
reservoir so you can do a complete circuit.
The first side gives you a view down the locks and then when you
get to the end you're looking NE and the views are fantastic.
Off to the right you can see the tower blocks and the warehouses
of Crewe, and then a little bit off to the left you can see the
huge white dish of the telescopes at Jodrell Bank,
which is about 15 miles away as the crow flies.
And beyond that, you can see the hills in the eastern part of
Cheshire and up to the Peak District beyond.
To find out more about how and why the Llangollan Canal is used
to move water, I spoke to Rob Moore, the head of water
services for Cheshire for United Utilities, and started by asking
him how much water comes down the canal each day.
We have an abstraction licence from the River Dee that puts
water into the Llangollan Canal and that enables us to abstract
up to 50 million litres of water a day.
And that abstraction licence is continually reviews and governed
by natural resources whales who are responsible for managing all
the water in in the area that we're abstracting from.
So whilst we're allowed to take up to 50 millilitres of water a
day, our normal flows at at Hurliston in terms of how much
water we take out of the canal is between 30 and 40 millilitres
a day, or or 12 to 16 Olympic swimming pools, the equivalent
of. So can you actually vary the
amount that you bring down and and how do you do that?
Yeah. So we work really closely with
the canals and rivers Truss. So ultimately they're the ones
who control the the flow down the canal through a number of
different sleuth valves that sits along the canal.
And they also in the reservoir, if you will, sits at the end of
this system and then we take our water out of to be treated.
So, so all of the flows are kind of controlled and governed by
the canal and rivers Truss, but obviously we have a really close
working relationship with them to make sure that we're putting
water in in the right places when we need it.
And the. Langocklan Canal is nearly 50
miles long, so why do you bring the water such a long way?
Are there Are there no closer sources of water to here?
Yeah, it's a really good question.
So ultimately we, we look at where, where the water resources
are and obviously over from the River Dee, it's a, it's a really
reliable source of water. So the, our treatment works at
Hurlaston supplies around about 160,000 people with, with clean
drinking water every day. So to be able to get a reliable
water source that's able to, to cater for that many people that,
that's ultimately where, where it comes from.
So from from the River Dee into the Llangollen Canal, out at
Hurlaston and then into the taps for thousands of customers.
So between entering the reservoir and leaving people's
taps, there must be quite a lot of processes that the water goes
through. Absolutely, yes.
So it's the three stage treatment works.
Hurliston coagulation is the first stage where we settle out
some of the dissolids that are naturally occurring within the
in raw water. We then philtre it to clean it
and purify it and then disinfect it to make sure that it that
it's safe for for the customers that will ultimately be drinking
it. I mean, I'm I'm wonder.
Whether the people of. Crewe.
And Nantwich. Realise that that boats have
been floating on the water that they're now drinking.
Potentially yes. And and as you say, you know,
we, we take our water from all sorts of different sources over
the regions, be that boreholes, impounded reservoirs that have
kind of upland peatland and everything, and also rivers and
canals as well. So the way that we've designed
our treatment works is such that it treats that water to a really
high standard, as I'm sure you'd expect, and then ultimately
makes it safer for people to drink.
And we go through a rigorous process of testing that water
day in, day out to make sure that it meets all the normal
high quality parameters that we treat to and that ultimately
makes sure that it's safe for people to drink and consume.
So the partnership that you have with the Canal and River Trust
because not only is it the canal that brings the water down, but
they actually own and manage the reservoir as.
Well. Don't they?
Is that is that quite unusual or is that something that that goes
on quite a lot? Yeah, that's pretty unique.
I mean we, we work in partnership with with loads of
different stakeholders and, and, and partners across the
Northwest in terms of managing our catchment.
And the way that we see this is essentially it's an extension of
our catchment. So, so that's all about how we
collect our raw water, store it, and then make sure that it's
available in, in sufficient supply to then be able to treat
and, and service the customers that this are fed off of that
network. So, so it's not unusual in the
sense that we're working in partnership with others to
manage our catchment land, but we do work very closely with
them in terms of managing the flows and controlling the flows
to make sure that that, you know, there's enough water for
people to drink, but also there's enough water in the
canal for, for boaters like itself to be able to enjoy
recreationally as well. And of course this.
Summer has been well, and the spring and summer have been.
Really dry and it's been. Causing lots of water shortages
on the. Canal network.
Have you been having to face problems because of the the dry
weather as well? Yeah.
So it's a really good question. So, so England has experienced
its driest March, April and May this year since the 1890s, which
kind of puts it in perspective as to, to just how dry this
summer has been. And we've had the warmest kind
of and sunniest spring on record with June being the warmest
month for England. And now we're recently we've had
the the third heat wave of the year.
So we've been working really hard to manage the water around
the whole of the Northwest. 98% of our network is integrated.
And what that means is that we're able to move water around
and bring it to areas that are are most, most in need.
And what we're trying to do is make sure that we're responsible
in how we do this. So, so we don't want to over
abstract, we don't want to take more water than we need.
And we're part of our efforts to do that are also to help
encourage and educate customers to be responsible in what
they're using as well. That's Rob Moore from United
Utilities. Well, a few weeks ago when I
spoke to Doctor Adam Comerford, CR TS National Hydrology
Manager, about the water shortages this summer, that
episode is still available to listen to.
We also spoke about the Lancoquilan and whether the use
of canals as water transport could be used more widely.
We are doing a lot of work with the water industry, particularly
at the moment. There's a lot of pressure on on
the water sector to make sure it's resilient.
The public water supply is getting better and better in the
face of things like climate change and population growth and
demand for water. So we're helping to be part of
that solution. And one particular example we've
been very closely involved with is a what's called the Grand
Union Canal water transfer. So that is proposed to take
about 115,000,000 litres of water per day from a water
treatment works to treat it again to the even higher
standard to put it in the canal and then transfer it about 80 or
so kilometres, 80 to 90 kilometres down through from the
Midlands down towards London and the southeast where it will then
get abstracted again out of the canal, treated again and put
into public water supply. So the benefits there are
obviously for public water supply and the water companies
involved, they, they improve their resilience at a price that
is more affordable than some of the other options that would be
available to a water company. But also we get the investment
into our infrastructure. We we get the upgrades of our
canal system, We get improved pumping stations, we get canal
sections relined, we get embankments strengthened and we
get more computer monitoring and sort of control of of the water
flows, which should ultimately help help.
Our boaters. And customers ensure that
particular canal really is sort of super reliable in the future.
That's Doctor Adam Comerford, CR TS National Hydrology Manager
Well, the flow on the Lancaster Canal does have some impact on
boating because all the water has to come round the locks.
The by washes can be very, very fierce, making it quite
difficult to get into some of the locks from below.
You need to sort of compensate by steering into the flow of the
by wash a little, and then it pushes your bow over as you go
into the lock. It also means it takes a bit
longer to go through bridges when you're going upstream
because of course the canal narrows bridge holes and it
means the water flows faster and further up the canal where there
are tunnels. It takes far, far longer to get
through the tunnel going upstream than it does when
you're coming back down. And that's all for this edition
of The Water Rd from Hurlaston, right at the start of the
Lancockland Canal. There'll be more episodes from
Lancockland as we continue our journey up this waterway.
The podcast is produced and presented by me at A Porter.
If you're enjoying what you're hearing, please do remember to
give us a nice review because it really does help other people
find us. And if you haven't already
clicked that Follow or subscribe button, please do so because it
will alert you when new episodes are published.
Don't forget that all previous episodes are also always
available to listen to. Thank you for listening to the
Water Rd.