Northumbrian Water

Winner of the Queen’s
Award for Enterprise

in the category of
sustainable development

We are proud to provide a sustainable, affordable, clean and safe water supply and to manage and treat the waste water returned to us in a way that protects the environment.

 

Business continuity - Case study

NWL carries out regular internal exercises and tests to examine the applicability and robustness of its Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Emergency Plans, skills and resources. In addition, NWL participates in national, regional and local emergency exercises with the security, local government, utility and emergency services. Some examples of these include:

Exercise 'Leadon' - Sizewell Nuclear Power Station, August 2008 (Essex and Suffolk Water)

Main Scenario: Gas explosion and rupture to pipework with release of radiation.

Secondary scenario: Radiological contamination of water supplies.

This was a multi-agency table-top exercise at Sizewell Power Station with a 'Silver' Incident Management Team convened at Hanningfield WTW.

Exercise 'Nicholls' - Lumley Water Treatment Works, September 2008 (Northumbrian Water)

Scenario: Major chlorine gas escape at Lumley WTW.

This was a multi-agency table-top exercise at Head Office, Pity Me to test the emergency procedures of the relevant emergency services.

Exercise 'Fox' - Essex and Suffolk Water, March 2009

Scenario: Distribution system recovery following loss of pressure with ingress of contaminant.

This live exercise was to test the procedures for setting up emergency booster chlorination at a Service Reservoir.

Exercise 'Jove', Ponteland, Northumberland, May 2009 (Northumbrian Water)

Scenario: Localised flooding with sewer flooding in the Ponteland area caused by the River Pont bursting its banks.

This live exercise was to test the emergency response and procedures for deploying emergency pumping plant. The need for the exercise was identified following extensive flooding in September 2008.

Exercise 'Kingfisher', National, March 2010
(UK Water Companies)

Scenario: Contamination of chemicals used by Water Companies in the treatment of their potable water supplies.

This national water industry table-top exercise spanned 3 days. It directly involved several water companies and the application of the industry’s mutual aid arrangements. It required NWL establishing a 'silver' team emergency planning group operating over two days and the activation of a multi-agency 'silver' team for the Co. Durham and Darlington region.