Water pollution

Water Quality

Water Quality in Westminster

The Health and Safety and Environmental Sciences Teams have been undertaking several monitoring projects involving drinking water, private water supplies, recreational water and swimming pools. Analysis reports are available from the links at the bottom of this page.

Mains drinking water

The mains drinking water project is shared with many other London and south east England councils. There has been an annual increase in compliance to current levels of over 99.8%. Thames Water has delivered significant water improvements in London in the last 10 years. Legislation governing water supplies continues to get stricter and it is good to note that Thames Water has a programme in place to meet the required improvements.

In total 12 samples were taken from consumer taps in the period from April 2002 to March 2003 for compliance with water quality standards in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 1989 and the EC Directive 80/778/EEC. Eleven of the samples submitted were for the reduced list of parameters and one was for the full list of parameters.

Westminster is served by Thames Water Utilities Limited whose water supplies are derived from chalk bore-holes and by Thames Water Utilities Limited, the sources of which are predominantly storage reservoirs, although some underground supplies are used.

Of a total of 525 chemical and 82 microbiological determinands 100% compliance was obtained

Full reports of the drinking water surveys conducted by Severn Trent Laboratories are available from the links at the bottom of the page

Private Drinking Water Supplies

The regulation of deep well water supplies is a statutory function under the Private Water Supply Regulations 1991. Currently there are six active private water supplies, both commercial and residential, under our jurisdiction. The trend is the bigger supplies with full treatment do seem to comply with the Regulations but the smaller supplies without treatment do not comply with all the parameters. Enforcement actions including notices may be required for some of the supplies.

Swimming Pools & Spa Pool Monitoring

Stage One: Testing	Stage Two: Analysis

The Spa Pool project was implemented to inform Health & Safety risk assessments for commercial premises; although a number of solely residential and education facilities are monitored as well. Pool water treatment is a complex area that has scope for improvement in some clubs and leisure centres. We still experience up to 40 % failure in chemical parameters and 13% failure in microbiological parameters. We believe that an improvement in management practices is the most effective way of improving pool quality and joint projects with the Health & Safety Team have targetted spa pools.

Public Recreation Areas

Drinking water fountains have been monitored in public parks and recreation grounds, this is to assess the hygiene of the water distribution systems and outlets. An assumption is made that the mains water supplied by Thames Water is generally ‘potable’ or of drinking quality and that if failures occur it is the fault of the park’s internal water distribution system. General surveillance has also been made of the cleanliness of ornamental fountains, boating waters and swimming ponds.

The impetus behind water quality monitoring is the advice and direction we receive from the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) and the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC). All London councils are encouraged to take various surveillance samples and to participate in greater London programmes run by the PHLS who in turn analyse the microbiological samples for no charge. This report is a way of compiling these PHLS samples and including them with chemical and inspection results for these projects and premises.

Water monitoring is fundamental public health work with a long and illustrious history especially in Westminster. This is the home ground of Alexander Fleming, John Snow, Joseph Bazalgette and many other public health pioneers.

All public drinking water fountains are sampled to ensure compliance with microbiological standards laid down in The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 1989.

Report Details

The following reports relating to water quality are available. If the report you require is not available to download from the Web site, please contact the Environmental Sciences team using the details below for information on how to obtain a copy.