Scottish Water "Open Day"

[Task Force]

The Task Force had a meeting at the Treatment works yesterday morning followed by a tour of the works.
The meeting was very positive and although things are still not perfect, there has been a lot of progress.
The Flow figures for October showed that Flow to Treatment has improved towards the end of the month as a result of various improvements at the Pumping station and works. Further improvements such as new screens and other bits of new and more modern equipment are scheduled for the next few weeks and these improvements should further increase the flows to treatment and reduce the risk of failures at the works.
There is a possibility that the blue hoardings and gantry may come down - we are waiting to hear the outcome of our request which is being considered.
It is also hoped that Phase 2 may be able to start in the new year and therefore the estimate of 2009 is pessimistic and if things go well it could be finished earlier.
With regard to the spills into the loch at Slaty Farlan, the community's concerns regarding this issue have been raised in various quarters and we await the outcome of discussions with Scottish Water. We hope for an update next week which we will post here. We will also post a full report of the meeting.
Finally there has been a big problem in the system with what Scottish Water refer to as "rags" blocking filters and impeding pumps etc. This is common to all sewerage systems and is no worse here than anywhere else. In fact apparently we are a bit better than average here and some places such as Skye where there is a large influx of daily visitors are much worse than average and have huge problems with this. However, we the community here, can help to keep our sewerage system working well if we "Bag it and Bin it" and do not put sanitary items such as nappy liners and cotton buds etc down the toilet.