United Utilities has just finished work on a £10.4 million scheme to improve sewage treatment and boost water quality in the Solway Firth and Eden Estuary, north of Carlisle.

The major scheme - which has taken 18 months to complete - meant building a new wastewater treatment works, three new pumping stations and a new sewer pipeline between Drumbrugh and Bowness on Solway.

The new system now receives sewage from around 700 homes in Drumbrugh, Glasson, Port Carlisle and Bowness and treats it to rigorous new standards set by the Environment Agency.

Project Manager Simon Povey from United Utilities said:

"This project is good news for water quality along this section of coastline, because it improves the quality of discharges entering the Solway Firth and Eden Estuary.

"This part of Cumbria is a unique habitat for all sorts of wildlife, including literally thousands of overwintering birds. We had to put a lot of thought into construction techniques and the types of materials we used.

"At one point we had to lay a new outfall pipe in the salt marsh at Port Carlisle, a site of special scientific interest. We cut out and carefully-stored more than 250 sections of marsh before putting them back in exactly the same spot when we'd finished. To look at it now you wouldn't even know we had been there."

Other work by engineers to minimise the project's impact on the environment included carefully designing a building to match the local architecture at Port Carlisle, using special porous concrete to allow tidal waters to recede, using biofuel to power machinery in sensitive areas and reducing the amount of waste to landfill by recycling excavated soil and rubble.

The Solway project is the latest in a number of coastal improvement projects in the North West over the past two decades and is part of United Utilities' multi billion pound investment programme.