Households to receive cleaner tap water

The works, which begin today, involve installing a new treatment process that should “significantly reduce” the risk of customers receiving discoloured water through their taps.

A new, timber-clad, manganese removal plant is being built at the rear of the existing works on Manchester Road and has been “sympathetically designed” to blend in with the landscape of the Peak District National Park.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: “Manganese is a naturally occurring metal which can cause harmless deposits to form in the city’s water supply system.

“If disturbed, this can cause customers’ water to appear discoloured.”

Project manager at Yorkshire Water, Simon Balding, said that this latest investment would help to protect another piece of improvement work which has been undertaken in the area over the past three years.

He said: “In 2008 we launched an £11m programme of work to upgrade some 80kms of large-diameter trunk mains in the Rivelin area.

“We’ve been working in streets across the area replacing and relining pipes, as well as cleaning out existing deposits of manganese.

“The new manganese removal plant will ensure that no new deposits build up in the future, which is great news for customers.”

Rivelin water treatment works cost £32m to build and first opened in the autumn of 1996.

It uses a process known as Sirofloc to treat the 75 million litres of water it produces every year.

Mr Balding added: “On completion of the work in April 2013, Rivelin water treatment works will be one of the most effective and efficient in Yorkshire, producing top quality tap water for the residents of Sheffield.”