Crystal Project - opening of the new works

The Lieutenant Governor, His Excellency Vice Admiral Sir Paul Haddacks KCB officially opened the new Douglas Water Treatment Works

The Lieutenant Governor, His Excellency Vice Admiral Sir Paul Haddacks KCB, accompanied by Lady Haddacks, officially opened the new Water Treatment Works in Douglas last Friday, 2nd May, 2008, in glorious sunshine, in the presence of the Chief Minister, the Honourable Tony Brown, Members of Tynwald and other distinguished guests.

The opening ceremony marked the end of a three year scheme by The Crystal Project team; made up of the Isle of Man Water Authority, Earth Tech Engineering Limited (the principal contractor) and Lagan Construction (Isle of Man) Limited (main sub-contractor). The works was delivered on time and on budget.

The Lieutenant Governor, with Chairman of the Board of the Authority, Mr David Cannan MHK and the Chief Executive Mr John Smith inspected the Water Treatment Works before he unveiled the plaque to mark the occasion. Both the Lieutenant Governor and David Cannan MHK thanked everyone for their commitment in bringing such an important capital project to fruition.

The two new works, one at Sulby which was completed in October 2005, and one at Douglas have replaced all the old water treatment works and the Authority now has the capacity to deliver its vision of crystal clear drinking water to the Island’s population for years to come. The works was delivered on time and on budget.

Work began on site in June 2005 with the construction and installation work being completed in October 2007. Treated water went into supply on 14th January, 2008.

With two new works on line the Authority now can now decommission the remaining older works at Glen Maye, Ballure, Ballagawne and Glencrutchery.

Explanation of how the new works treat the water:

The new works is a three stage works comprising DAF (Dissolved Air Flotation) followed by two stages of filtration. Within the DAF stage chemicals are added which cause the organic material to coalesce together into larger particles (flocs) which are removed by air bubbles bringing them to the surface where they are drawn off.

In the next stage, sand/anthracite filtration improves the water quality even further. Water is then pumped to the final filter process. Further chemicals are added between the first and second stage filters which cause the manganese in the water to precipitate and this is then removed by the smaller second stage filters.

The final part of the treatment process is disinfection of the water using sodium hypochlorite which is produced on site by the electrolysis of brine.

Raw water is supplied to the new treatment works from the West Baldwin and the Clypse and Kerrowdoo reservoirs and in certain circumstances pumped from the Sulby reservoir.

Background history:

The Isle of Man Water Authority had for many years recognised that the existing old water treatment works at Glen Maye, Ballure, Ballagawne, Sulby and Glencrutchery could not meet modern day requirements. Some of these works were now well over 50 years old, and although built to high standards at the time, they were now at the end of their productive life. These works were all single stage works and not capable of reliably meeting the stringent modern water quality standards and in particular removing manganese from the water.

The new Water Treatment Works in Douglas, costing £26.5 million, replaced the existing Glencrutchery water treatment works built in 1933. The Glencrutchery works was a single-stage treatment works and treated up to 18 million litres of water per day for residents living in the Douglas area.

The new multi-million pound water treatment facility is designed to treat up to 37 million litres of water a day to supply water to Onchan, Douglas, Middle, South Laxey and South of the Island, supplying 70% of the Island’s population.

The water quality will meet, or exceed, all current Drinking Water Inspectorate, European Union and World Health Organisation standards. The likely changes, over the next few years, to EU standards were reviewed during the initial design period and there are no changes to those standards which will impact on the acceptability of the supplies from Douglas Water Treatment Works.

DisabledGo Information

Terms & Conditions