Dirty Water Storage Reservoir

Handling the dirty water from a 300 cow dairy herd presented an opportunity to build a five-million gallon dirty water storage reservoir in Norfolk.

The project was attached to some excellent green credentials – the dirty water would be harvested and stored in the reservoir before being irrigated back on to the land months later to promote rapid and high quality grass growth.

The lined lagoon we created ensured that all of the waste water created by the herd each day was kept out of the surrounding water courses at all times of the year and would reduce the need to irrigate the land over the winter months when soils were regularly at saturation point or field capacity.

The dirty water was used to fertilise the grass grown in the fields surrounding the dairy unit and the grass was then cut for silage to act as winter feed or straight feed for the cattle over the summer months.

The project involved the excavation of 12,000 cubic metres of clay subsoil which was used to construct the banks around the edge of the reservoir.

The work was completed by our specialist lake and reservoir construction team and provided immediate benefit to the working farm, bringing it in line with modern legislation.