8
Tube Products International January 2011
news
business & market
Panton McLeod has helped
keep drinking water clean
Water quality engineering firm Panton
McLeod has completed a high profile
cleaning project to keep drinking water
supplies at their purest levels. The firm,
which is an expert in cleaning, repairing
and inspecting structures used to store
drinking water, successfully cleaned one
of the main storage tanks at a water
treatment works in Caithness, Scotland,
in order to maintain purity levels for
customers in the region.
The project saw a team from Panton
McLeod drain millions of litres of water
from the tank at the Loch Calder water
treatment works before removing a build
up of natural materials from the floor of
the facility. The routine work ensures
there is no chance for turbidity issues to
arise in the water supply.
Nigel Owen, team supervisor with
Panton McLeod, said, “This was an
important project for us to be involved
with, as Loch Calder is a prestigious
facility in Scotland. It was opened by
Prince Charles less than a decade ago,
and this was the first time that the tank
had been completely drained, so it was
vital to make sure everything went like
clockwork during the cleaning work.
“These structures need to be cleaned
regularly to ensure that the drinking
water stored in them remains as pure
as possible. Sometimes you can do this
while the tanks are still active and on-line,
but in this case we actually drained
the main tank, took it out of service
and deployed a team of engineers to
physically clean the structure.
“We had five lads who spent more than
two days cleaning, and they removed all of
the material that had naturally built up on
the floor of the tank. Although this natural
build-up poses no threat to customers, it
is important to remove it so that there is
no turbidity in the water supply.
“This kind of routine work always has
to be meticulously planned in order to
guarantee that no pressure is put on the
supply of water. We liaised extensively
with Scottish Water to ensure that
the cleaning work was carried out as
swiftly as possible with no disruption
whatsoever to customers’ supplies.”
Simon Harrison, Scottish Water
operations manager, added, “The kind
of work Panton McLeod carried out for
us is essential and we’re pleased with
the result, particularly as it didn’t disrupt
supplies for customers. We supply clear,
fresh drinking water to Caithness and
North Sutherland from the Loch Calder
plant and this piece of maintenance
helps us continue to do so.”
In addition to traditional drain down
projects, the firm has also pioneered
the use of innovative underwater robots,
which can be used to clean and inspect
service reservoirs or tanks while they are
still online, further minimising disruption
to customers’ supplies.
Panton McLeod
– UK
Cleaning project in Loch Calder
