New destination after the flush: Cooper Bridge works

Dec 17 2008 by David Himelfield, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A massive new sewage treatment works is being constructed at Cooper Bridge. DAVID HIMELFIELD takes a look at the £21m project

EVER wondered what happens after you flush the toilet?

A new £21m sewage treatment plant, which will serve 350,000 people from Brighouse to the Holme Valley, will have the answer.

Lower Brighouse Waste Water Treatment Works, off the A62 Cooper Bridge Road at Cooper Bridge, near Bradley, is expected to open at the end of next year.

The works is part of a £250m project being undertaken by Yorkshire Water to clean up the region’s rivers.

All waterways must meet standards set by the European Union’s Freshwater Fish Directive by 2010.

When you flush your loo your waste eventually arrives at Deighton treatment works which will receive a £5m upgrade.

Here it is filtered, removing larger items and pumped to one of the secondary treatment works which are close to each other at Colne Bridge, Heaton Lodge and Cooper Bridge. There the waste is further filtered and treated.

Safe water is then returned to the rivers.

Solid waste is incinerated at a nearby plant accessed from the opposite side of Cooper Bridge Road from the new construction works.

The three secondary plants currently in use – two of which date back to the 1950s and 1960s handle 164,000 cubic metres a day.

But from the end of 2009 the new Lower Brighouse works will handle 55% of the water, ensuring cleaner water is released into the river system.