Jersey sewage system needs replacing, report says

A report says the sewage system is trying to cope with a greater population than it was designed for

A new report warns that Jersey's sewage system could suffer a "catastrophic failure" due to being outdated.

The Bridging Liquid Waste Strategy (BLWS) looks at what has to be done to improve the system.

It found the system was trying to cope with a far greater population than it was designed for.

The report warned the 109 sewage pumping stations and rising mains were "at a critical point", and investment was needed to keep the system afloat.

Improvements to the sewage system have been ongoing for more than a decade - in 2014, the Council of Ministers called for the sewage plant treatment to be replaced.

The Minister for Infrastructure, Deputy Tom Binet said the government needed to "ensure the system can deal with that additional demand".

He said: "The network that takes liquid waste away from our homes is often taken for granted and only noticed when something goes wrong.

"The island has been well served by the current sewerage infrastructure, but it is ageing, and we now need a significant investment for the future of the island."

The BLWS said housing developments would not be able to go ahead without more infrastructure, and a "long-term significant investment" was needed.

It found the pumping stations faced challenges including their overall "reliability and resilience", and operational staff and resources being "stretched to the limit" trying to manage the impact of the "failures and preventing environmental breaches".

The report said in recent years, 20% had "suffered from surface water ingress", and hydrogen sulphide degradation was "prevalent in the pumping systems carrying water from the bay/coastal locations".

The £75m project at Bellozanne, which began in 2021, is close to completion, and will provide a full wastewater treatment for a population of 118,000.

Twenty two pumping stations and rising mains are more than 60 years old.

The report said the fact that these were still operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year was a "credit to the original design and the operational teams".

It called for a "significant investment over an extended period to avoid catastrophic failures".

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