Discoloured water in Balcombe

Aug 23, 2013
Bishop Hill in Energy: gas, Greens

There's a lot of Twitter noise this morning about Balcombe residents experiencing discoloured water. It must be Caudrilla, is the insinuation. Many such tweets are pointing to a video by "local resident Carl Lee".

It's probably not worth watching the whole thing; you will get the gist fairly quickly. Mr Lee turns out to be fairly active in the anti-fracking campaign, so you can imagine what it's like.

Anyway, from the video we learn that the water company concerned is South East Water. A brief perusal of their website turns up this:

I have heard reports of discoloured tap water in Balcombe. What is the current situation?

Balcombe is not supplied by local groundwater but by water taken from the River Ouse near Lewes and treated. South East Water was first contacted by a small number of customers in relation to Balcombe residents experiencing discoloured tap water on Friday 9th August. Our field team took samples of tap water from Balcombe and subsequent tests of these samples have shown the water as being fully compliant with drinking water standards (as set out in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000). We hope that this reassures our customers. 
 
On 15th August a burst water main in the area caused discoloured water for some customers for a short period of time while repairs were carried out. The main was flushed clear and returned to service.

If anyone is still experiencing any issues with their water supplies, please contact us.

 In related news, Cuadrilla have now restarted drilling operations.

Article originally appeared on (http://www.bishop-hill.net/).