Science raises a glass to cleaner water

Donal Hickey learns how uisce beatha is truly the water of life.

THE term ‘wee dram’, so much part of the lexicon of Scotch whisky lovers, could soon have an entirely new meaning. For, a by-product from whisky is being used by researchers in a bid to clean contaminated ground and waste water. Water pollution is a global problem and those behind the new product reckon they are onto something big.

The team at the University of Aberdeen believe they have found a new technique, potentially worth millions of pounds. They’ve given it a rather long-winded name, Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple pollutants (DRAM), and claim it has huge potential in industry.

The famous Glenfiddich distillery, in Speyside, has helped researchers get to this stage by donating the by-product, the nature of which is being kept secret.

According to the University of Aberdeen, there are 330,000 contaminated sites in Britain alone, including former industrial areas, small dry cleaning firms, car servicing companies, large refineries and chemical plants.

And, given recent EPA findings on water quality in Ireland, authorities here can also be expected to interest themselves in the product.

It is claimed early tests show DRAM removes multiple pollutants all at once in a pioneering move that is quicker and more cost effective than current techniques.

The researchers are considering forming a company to commercialise the technology, which could be licensed. Scottish Enterprise has given a €300,000 to help develop the product.

“We are using the by-product of Scotland’s most famous export, but our technology can utilise other by-products from the food and beverage industry.

“The clean-up of contaminated groundwater is an absolutely massive global market. The technology we’ve developed at Aberdeen is environmentally friendly, sustainable,” said Dr Graeme Paton.

In Ireland, the consumption and quality of water is starting to move up the environment agenda, prompted, it must be said, by directives from Brussels, with hundreds of millions of euro being invested to improve standards between now and the early years of the next decade.

Water was the subject of the 24th annual Sherkin Marine conference, in Carrigaline, Co Cork, last week, at which several international speakers outlined the challenges that lie ahead.

A clear message to emerge from the event, which was attended by up to 200 delegates, including local authority officials, engineers and councillors, was that we might not improve the situation here unless we were forced to do so by the EU.

As conference organiser Matt Murphy said in his opening address: “I believe that without these [EU] directives, we would have a very different attitude because local interests would be calling the shots on such issues as management of river catchment areas, landfill leachate, sewage discharge and water quality in bays and, of course, drinking water.” He also welcomed more powers in water quality enforcement for the EPA.

A serious issue that needs to be addressed in water wastage and leakage, which can be up to 40% in some local authority areas.

Water now costs a lot of money to produce, filter, purify and pipe, but there’s still massive waste. Mr Murphy is among a minority of people who believe meters must be installed in every home countrywide.

A certain amount of water should be free of charge, he maintained, but when a household’s consumption went over a certain level, the meter should start clocking.

The EPA has new enforcement powers under the Drinking Water Regulations and is the supervisory authority for public water supplies. But a number of group schemes still appear reluctant to take action to comply with clean water standards, as set out in law.

In the latest issue of Rural Water News, National Rural Water Project manager Kevin Reilly supports action against schemes that fail to upgrade their standards. He said a number of schemes had failed to engage with their local councils to put in place sustainable action programmes to improve water quality and protect the health of consumers.

Mr Reilly said 70% of schemes identified in the Action Plan for Rural Water Quality were now classified as having adequate treatment in place, while work on the remaining schemes was underway.

However, he also pointed out that 14 schemes across seven counties had not agreed action programmes to resolve their water quality issues.