Wessex Water is set to start work this autumn on a multi-million pound investment to ensure significant new protection for rivers, streams and brooks in west Somerset.

More than £12 million is being spent in two schemes in some of the county’s most rural areas to safeguard the environment by reducing chemicals and the discharge of untreated wastewater into watercourses.

The work, which will begin in September and be completed by January 2025, is taking place near the villages of Milverton and Bishop’s Lydeard and will see processes by which wastewater is treated before being returned to the environment updated, as well as measures to ensure the sewer system is not overwhelmed by heavy storms.

Water recycling centres serving the villages will be overhauled to help further improve the health of local waterways by removing chemicals and pollutants from the sewer flows arriving at the sites.

Increased storage is also being installed to reduce the instances of storm overflows operating automatically to relieve the threat of overwhelmed combined sewers flooding homes and businesses following heavy rainfall.

Designed as a relief valve to protect homes from flooding, if there is too much rainfall in the system, the overflow automatically discharges into waterways. The new storage will keep more mixed rain runoff and wastewater in tanks at the centres before it is treated and safely returned to the environment later.

The centre at Milverton will see the capacity of stormwater storage more than tripled, with more than 168,000 litres being able to be held before being returned to the system for safe treatment. At Bishop’s Lydeard, storage capacity will be nearly doubled to more than 228,000 litres.

Wessex Water Delivery Manager Paul Godfrey said:

“By upgrading these centres we’re significantly enhancing the way we remove chemicals, such as phosphorous which is found in many household products, from wastewater before it is returned to the environment in Somerset.

“Together with the increased storage capacity to reduce the amount of times storm overflows operate, these projects will help to further improve the health of our watercourse, including rivers.

“We’re spending hundreds of millions of pounds across the Wessex Water region to upgrade the equipment at our water recycling centres, ensuring they continue to comply with standards set by the Environment Agency, improve water quality and protect the environment.’’

Wessex Water said it is continuing to invest £3 million a month to reduce how often storm overflows operate, with this figure rising to £9 million a month, if approved by water industry regulators.

Since 2000, the water company has invested £181 million upgrading more than 582 storm overflows.

Wessex Water is now planning to spend a further £150 million between now and 2025 on storm overflows to reduce their impact on the environment and estimates that this will reduce the number of hours storm overflows operate for by approximately 25% by 2025.