Friday 26 August 2022: Three Affinity Water Articles

Friday 26 August 2022: Three Affinity Water Articles

Where our water comes from

We take the majority (65%) of our supply from groundwater sources and the remainder from surface water sources, including from the River Thames and from reservoirs located outside of our supply area. We also receive water from and provide water to neighbouring water companies (known as bulk supplies or transfers).

Groundwater makes up an important part of our water supply, and this is the area we focus on most when assessing our water resource situation and the risks of drought. Please see our Drought Plan for more information about how we monitor our water resources and how we plan for when these are affected by low rainfall. 

The groundwater we abstract is stored naturally underground in bodies of rock known as aquifers. These aquifers also contribute to flow in the globally rare Chalk streams in our area. 

We work hard to ensure we monitor and mitigate the impacts of our abstractions on the local environment. This includes reducing certain abstractions, both temporarily during times of stress and in the longer term through our sustainability reductions programme. We also provide river support or augmentation during times of low river flows in some rivers. Our programme of river restoration, which aims to deliver significant habitat enhancements on rivers across our supply area is helping to improve our rivers for local wildlife. For more information about these programmes please see our Drought Plan. We face many challenges including population growth and climate change and are actively planning to create a secure and environmentally sustainable water supply in the future. For more information about the plans we are putting in place to meet these challenges, please see our Water Resources Management Plan.

In summary, what was this article telling you?​

How easy or challenging was it to read and understand?​

What would you change, if anything, about this article, and why?

This article offers a cursory overview of how Affinity Water obtains its fresh water.

I did not find it remotely challenging. However, I considered it to be written for well-educated people, not for the general public. It uses technical words, such as groundwater and abstraction, with which the general public is unlikely to be familiar and may feel as though they are being made to appear stupid. It uses terms, such as mitigate and enhancement, which whilst entirely familiar to educated people, whose use of language involves 'elaborated code', will be much less familiar to less-well-educated people who spend their lives immersed in a local or sectoral 'restricted code'. The sentence construction is also intended for an educated readership. The thrust and flow of the article feels disjointed. I would wish to rewrite the entire article.

Why winter rain is important

Due to the nature of groundwater and how it functions, the most important factor is rainfall during autumn and winter, when groundwater levels are effectively topped up by the rainfall that percolates down through the soil. This process is known as recharge. The ground needs to be wet for water to seep through and for recharge to happen, and we measure this through a metric called soil moisture deficit, or 'SMD'. The higher the SMD, the drier the soil is and the less likely it is that rainfall will permeate down to contribute to recharge of our aquifers. Conversely the lower SMD is, the more likely it is that a higher proportion of rainfall will contribute to recharge.

Summer rainfall has little impact on Chalk groundwater levels because the ground is hard and dry, which makes it difficult for water to get through, and a large proportion of it runs off into rivers or the drainage network. Water falling during warmer months is also more likely to be used by plants/vegetation or evaporate.

1. In summary, what was this article telling you?​
2. How easy or challenging was it to read and understand?​
3. What would you change, if anything, about this article, and why?

In summary, the article explains why winter rain is important to water companies

As with the first article, I found the material easy to understand. As with the first article, I consider it poorly suited to a less-well-educated readership, for exactly the same reasons. Is it your intention to inform, or do you really wish to teach? ".. we measure this through a metric called soil moisture deficit, ..." This kind of language can make less-well-educated people angry - I speak from experience. I also note that the verbs percolate and permeate are used as if interchangeably, whereas they mean different things, which is relevant in the context of this article. As with the first article, it reads clumsily.

How droughts affect our water supply

Droughts vary from region to region in England. Neighbouring water companies will take the actions that are necessary in their region to protect water supplies and this can mean that our actions may differ according to the particular circumstances.

The reasons why water companies may have to react differently in terms of restrictions, and the timing of implementation, are explained below.

Droughts can vary in severity across a region, depending on rainfall patterns, with some areas experiencing more rainfall than others, and therefore causing different levels of water shortages across the region.

Drought can also impact water companies differently depending on how their water supply systems are made up. Water companies divide their supply regions into smaller areas known as Water Resource Zones (WRZs). WRZs can be divided into those dependent upon: 

• Groundwater abstraction
• Surface water - river abstraction
• Surface water - reservoirs filled by abstracting local river water or by impounding river water 
• Combinations of the above.

Each of these types of water sources undergoes a different risk at different times during a drought event. This mix of WRZ types means that even if there were not a significant difference in drought severity across the region, WRZs will tend to react differently to the same drought. That means in similar drought conditions, rivers, groundwater sources and reservoirs across the region can respond differently in terms of risk to supply.

For example, a WRZ dependent on combined river abstraction and reservoir storage for supply may have a different level of risk to one based on groundwater abstraction. This difference in WRZ vulnerability has an impact both at the company level and regional level. This means that we could apply temporary use restrictions across some areas of our supply, but does not necessarily mean this will cover our whole supply area. Equally the need to impose restrictions for one company may not equally apply to another. For more information about how droughts can affect us as a predominantly groundwater-based company, please see our Drought Plan.

1. In summary, what was this article telling you?​
2. How easy or challenging was it to read and understand?​
3. What would you change, if anything, about this article, and why?

In summary, the article addresses why water company responses to drought conditions vary between water companies and between different areas within the same catchment.

The language in this article is, as the other two, intended for an educated readership "... us as a predominantly groundwater-based company." (Do you seriously imagine that a customer who has a few mediocre GCSEs will make meaningful sense of that terminology?). How are people supposed to know and understand the difference between "a drought event" and "drought conditions"? However, in contrast to the other two, it is better written and more coherent. It still has some conceptual problems, including determining whether the article is intended for a textbook or a public information sheet.

I have responded honestly to what I have read. Part of my job used to involve copy-editing PhD theses and textbooks for publication. Please forgive the hubris: I would willingly edit these three articles.

---

Here is my attempt to rewrite these passages:

How water companies get fresh water

When rain falls onto the ground, it starts to wet the soil. Soil acts like a sponge, and can fill with water. Plants growing in the soil take up water through their roots. Once the surface of the soil becomes wet, the rainwater starts to sink deeper into the soil. Below the soil is rock. Some kinds of rock, such as chalk and sandstone, allow water to pass into and through the rock. Other kinds of rock, such as granite, do not allow water to pass into rock. As with soil, chalk and sandstone act like a sponge and can fill with water.

When it rains, water sinks through the soil only slowly. Where there is a rock such as chalk or sandstone beneath the soil, the water sinks ever deeper into the rock, but only very slowly. After months of rain, the rock gradually fills with water. A water well is a hole dug deep into the rock that has filled with water - water that has seeped out of the rock into the well.

Chalk and sandstone are excellent at gathering water that has sunk into the ground. Water companies, such as Affinity Water, drill deep holes into the chalk and sandstone. Water in the rock seeps into these holes. This water is then pumped out of the holes, cleaned and put into the mains water pipes. Affinity Water gets two thirds of its fresh water from water stored in rock.

When a lot of rain falls onto the ground very fast, instead of only sinking into the soil, much of the rain runs off the soil and forms streams. Instead of sinking into the rock beneath the soil, much of the water in the soil trickles into the streams. Streams meet, join together, and become rivers. Water in rivers flows to the sea. Water in rivers is fresh water, and can be cleaned for people to use. Water in the sea is very salty, and cannot be used. Water companies take water from rivers, clean it and put it into the mains water pipes. A river has to be big for much water to be taken from it.

One way to gather a lot of water in one place is to dam a river and create a reservoir. A reservoir usually looks like a lake, and can hold a lot of water. Reservoirs are especially useful in places where there is no chalk or sandstone beneath the soil, such as places where the rock is granite instead. Reservoirs are very expensive to build, and often destroy the homes of wildlife. In the past, entire villages have been swallowed up by a new reservoir. On the other hand, larger reservoirs often offer the opportunity for water sports. Affinity Water obtains one third of its fresh water from rivers, such as the River Thames, and from reservoirs.

Drought

Drought is when there is persistent lack of water. Mostly, we think of drought as being a lack of rain over a long period of time. River water flow slows, and parts of the river might even dry up until it rains again. The level of water in reservoirs gets lower, and the reservoir risks becoming empty. Drought can also occur when the water stored in rock, such as chalk or sandstone, becomes used up. Weeks or months with little or no rain can become a problem when fresh water is mostly drawn from rivers and reservoirs. This is because rivers and reservoirs mostly rely on rain that has recently fallen on the ground or sunk only into the soil. Water stored in rock may have been there for years, and is less vulnerable to periods of low rainfall. There may be less of a problem when fresh water is mostly drawn from deep holes in water-storing rock. 

Weather in Britain often involves a dry summer and a wet winter. Rainy winters recharge water-storing rock with water. This means that, as long as there has been good rainfall in the winter, there will be plenty of water to draw out of the ground even during a dry summer. A dry winter followed by a dry summer can become a problem. Hot, dry summers are the worst. High temperatures bake the soil, forming a kind of crust. This makes it more difficult for the water to wet the soil, and so sink down. Instead, the water simply runs off the very dry ground straight into streams and rivers, sometimes causing flooding. Summer rainfall rarely reaches the underlying rock.

Water companies have Drought Plans that describe what they will do when there is a drought. The best-known action is to ban the use of hose-pipes in order to reduce water use by customers. However, there are many other actions that can be, and are, taken. Affinity Water's Drought Plan can be read in detail online. A water company that obtains its fresh water from rivers and reservoirs might need to implement its Drought Plan sooner than a water company that obtains its fresh water from water stored in underlying rocks. On the other hand, Kielder Water in Northumberland holds so much water that it would be hard for it to run dry. 

Southern and eastern Britain tend to experience less rainfall than northern and western Britain. This means that water companies in south-eastern England may have to activate their Drought Plan sooner than water companies further north or west. Low rainfall during 2022 has meant that South West Water reservoirs, whilst almost full to capacity in March, had fallen to 40% capacity by the end of August. Unlike Affinity Water, South West Water obtains 90% of its fresh water from rivers and reservoirs, and have had to impose a ban on the use of hosepipes. Different circumstances mean that different water companies activate their Drought Plans at different times. 

Protecting the water supply

Water companies do not only supply fresh water. They are also required to protect the water resources. They look after rivers, reservoirs and water stored in the rock. Rivers are places where wildlife can flourish. If too much water is taken out of a river, wildlife suffers. Sometimes water is pumped into rivers to protect the wildlife. Reservoirs are also places where wildlife can flourish, and are often used for recreation, too. Drought can be bad for a reservoir. Water stored in rock can be threatened, especially by ever-increasing demands from new housing estates and from industry. Over the years, winter rains may be insufficient to recharge the rock with water, until it eventually dries up. On the other hand, when there is plenty of winter rain, the level of water in the ground may be high enough to to allow winter streams to flow, and to keep chalk streams flowing along their full course.

Technical terms used in the water industry

Run-off: water from rainfall that runs over the ground into streams and rivers.

Groundwater: water that sinks into rocks such as chalk, limestone and sandstone.

Aquifer: a body of rock that holds water and can be used for water storage.

Borehole: a hole drilled down deep into the rock, and can be used for pumping water out of the rock.

Abstraction: taking water from rivers, reservoirs and aquifers to use for fresh water supply.

Water table: the exact depth below which the water-holding rock is filled with water. Additional rain will raise the level of the water table. Lack of rain will lower the level of the water table.

Chalk stream: a stream that is mostly fed by water seeping out of the underlying chalk rock. With little run-off water, the water in chalk streams tends to be very clear. They offer a special environment to wildlife, and require protection from pollution and modern developments. There are 210 chalk streams in the world, and 160 of them are in England.

Winterbourne: a seasonal stream fed solely by water, mostly from winter rainfall, seeping out of water-holding rock. Another way of saying this is that the water table rises to a level higher than the stream bed. 

Wednesday 17 August 2022: E-mail to Southern Water

Wednesday 17 August 2022: E-mail to Southern Water

Dear sirs,

Customer Number: xxxx

I pay Southern Water for waste water removal, whereas I pay Affinity Water for fresh water supply.

In the year from April 2020 until March 2021, a mains water leak lost 988 cubic metres of water, about which I alerted Southern Water.

Thank you for your e-mail of 2 May 2022. I was very happy to read that I would not be charged on the basis of the water that was lost before the leak was repaired. I was also happy to read that my account was to be rebilled based on my ordinary use of water.

Sadly, the calculation sheets referenced in the sentence “I have enclosed the calculation sheets for your reference” were not attached to the e-mail I was sent, otherwise I would have attached them to this e-mail. Lazily, and perhaps unwisely, I simply waited to see the results of the recalculation in my water bills and consequent monthly direct debits. Perhaps, had I followed up the matter immediately, I would not need to be writing now.

I regret that my sense is that I have been paying Southern Water by direct debit too much. Before the water leak, I was paying £9.50 per month, which covered the bills sent to me by Southern Water. Since March 2022 I have been paying £50.00 per month. I am unclear why, but maybe it was explained in the calculation sheets that I did not receive. However, as a result, my account is now £223.45 in credit (considerably in excess of my annual bill charged by Southern Water).

I recently received online correspondence from Southern Water informing me that, from September 2022, my direct debit payments will reduce to £22.11 per month, to remain in force for six months (£132.66). As my fresh water usage, on which your calculations are based, consistently averages about 160 litres per day (58.44 cubic metres per year), I do not understand how the credit in my account is to reduce.

I am unhappy both that my account is now £223.45 in credit (which seems excessive to me), and that the payments Southern Water intends to take over the next six months will do little to reduce this balance. It may be that there is a good explanation for why Southern Water has chosen to build up and maintain such a large credit balance, but I have not been given this information. I should like to understand the basis on which an appropriate credit balance is determined. I should also prefer that Southern Water substantially reduced my credit balance.

I should be most grateful were you to look into the matter, and then let me know by e-mail your findings.

With best wishes,

Tuesday 16 August 2022: Hosepipe ban

Tuesday 16 August 2022: Hosepipe use ban

1. What are your thoughts and understanding of the recent hosepipe ban? ​
2. In your view, how necessary is it for water companies to issue a hosepipe ban and why?​
3. Affinity Water are not planning to issue this ban but we’re curious to know, how would you feel if this did happen to you?

First, let me say that I have read carefully Affinity Water's drought action plans. I like the fact that there is a detailed plan in place, and that are several stages of action depending on the severity (longevity) of the drought. However, I also sense a deep reluctance to engage the plan, which is responsive rather than anticipatory and pre-emptive. My preference would be for Affinity Water to take pre-emptive action in order to reduce the likelihood of the drought progressing to a more severe stage. If this coming autumn and winter's rains are insufficient to recharge the underlying aquifer, then we shall enter next year's growing season with serious water stress. If next summer proves to be as rainless as this year, then the drought stage will inevitably progress, and more demanding action will be required. I consider it to be very much more preferable to take mild action now.

Towards the end of July 2022, during the exceptionally hot weather, two nearby villages, Challock and Molash, served by South East Water, had no mains water for a full week, due to the drought. Even the stocks of bottled water that were delivered in lieu were exhausted. In my view this situation was wholly unacceptable, and should never have been allowed to get anywhere close to such a calamity. I hope that Affinity Water have greater foresight, common sense and some level of empathy for their customers.

My preference for pre-emptive action certainly applies to a hosepipe use ban (which is an early stage action). Indeed, since we grow a significant proportion of our fruit and vegetables, but have had almost no rain at all for the past four months, and I have therefore had to water the plants daily, I have conscientiously chosen to use watering cans instead of a hose pipe. This also allows me to re-use grey water, thus also 'saving water'. Similarly, I wash the car using a sponge and bucket, not a hose pipe.

Sunday 14 August 2022: Comment 'below the line' in The Guardian newspaper

Sunday 14 August 2022: 

Comment 'below the line' in The Guardian newspaper 

I rarely write 'below the line' comments regarding articles printed in the online version of The Guardian newspaper. Partly, this is because I am not one of the commenters whose comments are welcomed. When I have written a comment, the comment usually receives few (if any) likes. Sometimes, on contentious issues, my comment attracts the attention of commenters vehemently opposed to what I have written. I never engage in arguments or spats, aware that some of these commenters may be paid trolls whose work is to sow antagonism. "Don't feed the trolls." I have little interest in what they think about an issue. Partly, also, the window of opportunity to comment usually closes after only a few hours, and, before now, I have spent a long time writing and carefully honing a comment only to find, once I am ready to post it, the discussion window has closed. I neither enjoy writing 'on the fly', nor am I competent at doing so. I much prefer to think, to write, to edit, think some more, write some more, and so on. Unless I do so, then I have a tendency to miss out key points, I express ideas clumsily, I realise that what I have written could be taken with a different meaning, perhaps even a contrary meaning (written English can be treacherous), and so on. When I am in a position to write how I prefer, then what I have to say is better balanced, more nuanced, and communicates, more or less, what I intended. Maybe I ought, now, to rewrite this piece, perhaps to illustrate my point. (This I have now done, but not with the purpose of illustration, but simply to communicate both more accurately and with greater precision.)

The text below is the gist of what I wrote in a comment regarding a click-bait piece in The Guardian. My comment attracted no 'likes', but some unpleasantness from commenters who have a visceral dislike of veganism. Although substantively the same, the text is now better written, and better expresses something of the complexity and tension in attempting to live a principled life.    

My family (wife, daughter and I) are vegetarians, and have been so inclined for decades. I have lived as a strict vegan for nearly thirty years. It is a truism to say that there are almost as many types of vegan as there are vegans, an issue I might take up for another post. My veganism is of the whole lifestyle variety. I do not use leather (especially relevant to footwear), silk (ties in particular) or wool (clothing). Floor coverings are tile, vinyl and man-made fibres. Medication and toiletries are animal-free. I go to lengths that many people might consider extraordinary so as to ensure that I avoid animal-derived products. In the garden, I relocate, to a neighbouring field, a great many slugs and snails so that they can no longer much on our lettuces and brassicas. When I am digging, I move earthworms out of harm's way. The other day I rescued a lizard from a bonfire (and, amazingly, saw it again the next day). As the autumn advances and the days and nights become colder, mice come into the house from the garden and surrounding fields, seeking shelter, warmth and food. We use humane, small mammal traps to capture these unhygienic animals, and I can sometimes be found around midnight traipsing up a hill, torch in hand, with the purpose of depositing the unfortunate creature in a wood a quarter of a mile away (mice simply return to the house is they are not transported far enough away).

In some considerable contrast, cats require taurine in their diet, which means that they can never be naturally be vegan. That's just how the universe is. The same applies to lions, tigers and other carnivores. Seals and dolphins did not evolve to graze on seaweed. We have two pet cats. We live in the countryside, surrounded by fields. Both cats hunt. Mostly they catch mice, rabbits, pigeons and occasionally rats. Mostly, they eat what they kill, moles and toads being notable exceptions. I should not be sad were the cats were the cats to catch more mice so that they (the mice) do not make it into the house. There were rats in the house for a while after we first moved in, but the predatory behaviour of the cats seems to have cleared rats from living near the house. The idea of rats in the house still makes my blood run cold.

However, apart from the issue of blood and entrails being left of the floor of the utility room, I am also satisfied that the cats catch and eat wild rabbits Obviously, wild rabbits do not invade the house. Their dispatch is a convenience to me, because the rabbits are a terrible nuisance. They attack my vegetables, gnaw the bark off my many fruit trees, and readily build warrens in which the breed scores more rabbits. The presence in the village of a local horse and hound hunt, and the near complete absence of foxes in the area, may be mere coincidence. However, apart from a family of buzzards, there is little to predate on the rabbits. It cost me £1,700 to have a rabbit-proof fence erected around my allotment garden, which makes the cost of growing beetroot and chard, carrots and brassicas, rather expensive. I bought a humane rabbit trap, but have managed to date to trap only one rabbit and an extremely cross badger. Further, but on a different point, fresh rabbit flesh may be better quality food than the canned food on which I feed the cats twice every day. Indeed, if I knew how to do so (which I do not), I would encourage the cats to catch even more rabbits. However, the cats are sleepy in the summer heat, and so the rabbits often get killed on the road instead, which, from the perspective both of cat nutrition and of their behavioural enrichment, seems like a waste (and can't make much difference to the doomed rabbits).

Despite any amount of netting, on which we have spent a fortune, the pigeons still manage to devastate the brassicas, turning their leaves into green filigree. Again, when there are too many pigeons, they end up as road-kill. If the cats manage to catch the occasional pigeon, they are, unbeknown to themselves, performing a minor service, other than the horrendous riot of feathers, and the entrails, they leave.  

In summary, we keep cats for the reason why cats have lived, symbiotically, among humans for millennia: to prey on vermin, which is part of the natural algorithm of their DNA. If the natural diet of cats included cans of industrially-processed animal parts, then surely they would have evolved claws to open steel cans.    

The boundaries of my veganism lie distant, but they do not involve a total denial of the natural world.   

Thursday 11 August 2022: Affinity Water annual report video

Thursday 11 August 2022: Affinity Water annual report video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtkREw_gb1c

As a corporate video, it was exactly as one might expect. I imagine that it will allow company executives to feel good about themselves, and potentially strengthen the value of Affinity Water's share price (which has been in decline for the past 18 months). Here is a 1960 parody of the corporate video: https://archive.org/details/YourName1960

The message of the Affinity Water annual report video is that the water industry appears to have no serious structural or infrastructure problems, and Affinity Water is doing everything right. What makes me say this? The video focused a) only on achievements; b) gave absolutely no objective perspective on those achievements (e.g. year-on-year reduction of water lost to leakage measured against total annual leakage; c) gave absolutely no context regarding the enormous practical and environmental challenges facing both water supply (to domestic users, agriculture and industry), and waste water treatment in the UK.