Ardleigh Reservoir is a lake near

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England constructed in the valley of the Salary Brook. It supplies water both to

Anglian Water Anglian Water is a water company that operates in the East of England. It was formed in 1989 under the partial Water privatisation in England and Wales, privatisation of the water industry. It provides water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment ...

and to

Affinity Water Affinity Water is a UK supplier of drinking water to 3.8 million people in parts of London, eastern and south eastern England. The company is owned by a consortium of Allianz, HICL and DIF Tamblin. Affinity Water was established through the pur ...

. The lake is also used for recreational activities including

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

and

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniqu ...

History

The South Essex Waterworks Company, the Southend Waterworks Company and several other water undertakings in Essex sought powers in 1969 to increase the security of the supply of drinking water. A draft Water Order was made and a public inquiry was held in December 1969. The Essex River and South Essex Water Act 1969 received Royal Assent on 25 July 1969. Under the terms of the Act the Essex River Authority constructed the Cattawade Barrage Works to prevent salt water entering the lower reaches of the River Stour. The South Essex Waterworks Company built a water intake upstream of the barrage, a pumping station at Brantham, and a pipeline to the new Ardleigh reservoir. The South Essex Waterworks Company and the Southend Waterworks Company merged to form the Essex Water Company in 1970.

Operation

The reservoir is operated by the Ardleigh Reservoir Committee which is owned jointly by Affinity Water (formerly

Veolia Water East Veolia Water East, formerly known as Tendring Hundred Water Services, was a privately owned company supplying water to the Tendring peninsula in north east Essex within an area of . In July 2009, the company, a subsidiary of Veolia Water UK sinc ...

) and

. The reservoir receives large volumes of water from the East Mills intake (51°53'28.8"N 0°54'54.8"E) on the River Colne and the Northern and Western Salary Brooks in the direct reservoir catchment of about 12 km². The River Colne's catchment area is approximately 256 km². The associated Ardleigh water treatment works (51°54'59.3"N 0°57'43.3"E), treats and supplies 14 million litres per day of drinking water to 133,000 customers. The treatment plant has included

Dissolved Air Flotation Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a water treatment process that clarifies wastewaters (or other waters) by the removal of suspended matter such as oil or solids. The removal is achieved by dissolving air in the water or wastewater under pressure ...

(DAF), Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filters, ozone dosing, Rapid Gravity Filters (RGF) and Actiflo technology. The peak output of Ardleigh treatment works is 36 million litres per day (2018). In 2011 SRC Aggregates planned to remove 4 million tonnes of gravel from a site adjacent to the Ardleigh reservoir to eventually create a new reservoir of 1.8 million. Gravel extraction was thought to take 15 years.

Recreation

Both game and coarse fish are present including

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

and

zander The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae, which includes the perches, ruffes and darters. It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. It is a popul ...

. Ardleigh Reservoir is also home to the University of Essex Rowing Club.

References

Reservoirs in Essex Drinking water reservoirs in England {{Watersupply-stub