Severn Trent Water is appealing to customers to help locate a large number of private pumping stations which will soon become Severn Trent's responsibility to maintain.

A change in legislation from October 2016 will mean the water company will both own and maintain the pumping stations, which will be welcome news for some of our customers who may find them costly and difficult to maintain.

Sam Oliver from Severn Trent Water, explained:

“October 2016 is just under a year away, but we think there are still many pumping stations across the Severn Trent region which will become our responsibility that we have not yet found.”

“The pumping stations, which could be in our customers’ back gardens or on land adjacent to their homes, help to pump waste from their home to the local sewage treatment works.

“These stations vary in shape and size - they could be as small as a manhole cover or as big as an outhouse at the bottom of a garden. Customers will know if they have one as they will generally be paying for the electricity and a maintenance contract. We would like our customers to contact us and tell us if they have one so that we can understand if it needs transferring, and if so then can plan to start maintaining it for them in 2016.”

Severn Trent Water has been locating pumping stations that will transfer over the last 2 years and surveying them to understand their current condition. All of the information has been used to develop an adoption schedule.

The utility has already adopted a number of stations in Derbyshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. Severn Trent began working in these areas first as this was where the most stations were found.  here. It is also only adopting those stations that are deemed to be high risk, which could relate to the risk of flooding or pollution, or to the age of the pumping station, or to the ability to access it easily.

Severn Trent has an adoption schedule in place which runs from April 2015 to 1st October 2016 - any eligible stations that are not adopted before 1st October 2016 will be adopted on that day automatically.

Sam Oliver added:

“We would really encourage people to ‘hand over’ their pumping station so that we can maintain it for them. The transfer of private drains, sewers and pumping stations is a positive for everyone – it means that if anyone has a blocked or collapsed drain or sewer, it’s now clearer who is responsible for repairs. In addition, from October 2016, we will run and maintain the pumping stations if they meet the criteria for transfer.”