Work to create a second huge reservoir to help supply drinking water to Bristol is underway to the south of the city, and could be dug and operational by 2033, water chiefs have said.
Engineers and surveyors have begun to take soundings of the land south of the current Cheddar Reservoir, as Bristol Water and its parent company begin the process of resurrecting previously dropped plans for a second lake on farmland there.
The plans were proposed for around five years from 2013 but dropped in 2018, largely because of the costs involved, and because water bosses said it was no longer needed if they focussed on reducing existing leaks in the system instead.
But with the needs of a growing population in both Bristol and nearby Weston-super-Mare, the possibilities of climate change bringing more extreme periods of rain and drought, and with Bristol Water now bought out by South West Water, the idea is back in play again.
The sight of surveyors out in the fields to the south of the existing Cheddar Reservoir, around 11 miles south of Bristol, has been noticed by local people and media, confirming that Bristol Water is pressing ahead with the second reservoir idea.
“The work developing the Cheddar 2 proposal is very much ongoing and is being progressed by West Country Water Resources, a combination of Bristol Water, Wessex Water and South West Water,” Bristol Water’s supply optimisation manager Owen Smith told Harry Mottram, from Axbridge News.
“As you can imagine such a significant infrastructure project requires time to collect information and develop proposals, whilst the key principle of increasing the volume of storage to make more water available from our existing resources remains the same, where the water is going and how it is connected into each water company has evolved – so it’s not as simple as just refreshing the previous plans. I appreciate the local community would like to hear more, and further updates will be provided in the coming months,” he added.
Last year, the first inkling that the plan could be pursued again came when South West Water announced it was investing £2.8 billion on water infrastructure across the whole of the West Country, from Cornwall to Somerset and Bristol.
That came in the form of a business plan filed to regulator Ofwat, requesting permission to increase customer bills to fund the multi-billion pound investment, and that business plan included mention of ‘Cheddar 2′.
At the time, the plan said: “As part of our continued investment in the UK water sector, customers of Bristol Water, Bournemouth Water and those in the Isles of Scilly are set to receive their largest ever investment in their water infrastructure and in resilience, building on the track record for water services we have delivered in Devon and Cornwall, and sharing the learnings from the extended drought.
“It’s also why we’re resurrecting the previously disregarded plans for the Cheddar Two reservoir, that will benefit customers across the Greater South West. Our merger with Bristol Water, driven by synergies and strategic water resources benefits, and our active progression of the need for the new Cheddar Two reservoir, brings benefits to all of the wider South West region, including the Wessex region,” it added.