Environmental performance indicators - environmental improvement

Due to the type of Company’s activity, the main focus of our interest, and at the same time the invaluable resource, is Water, both in the quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Water - quantitative aspect.

The main environmental objective that the Company has imposed on itself is the reduction of water losses within the water supply system in the process of its distribution, as well as the promotion of rational use of water among Customers. The environmental objective is a direct result of the Company's current environmental policy containing a declaration on rational management of water resources.
In the case of our Customers, we encourage them to use water in a rational manner in the so-called soft way, i.e. through the OPEN DAYS organized on the occasions of the World Water Day and World Water Week, during which we inform about their objectives and goals, as well as by information leaflets.
As concerns the Company, rational water management is implemented mainly by the improvement of functioning of the water supply system and reduction of water losses in the process of its distribution. For this purpose in 2007 the Company purchased a vehicle equipped with specialized diagnostic devices (a correlator, loggers, a geophone, a listening rod and a pipe tracer) for acoustic detection of noise made by water leaks from the damaged pipeline. The use of this equipment allows for gradual determination, with great precision, of emergency network fragments, i.e. places where the tightness of the water supply system has been disturbed. The inspection is based on the implementation of the process called ‘Active Control of Leaks’. In order to detect disturbed tightness of pipes inspections of the water supply system are carried out in the selected areas with specifically defined frequency.
Within 2006 - 2011 the inspection was made of nearly 1.611 km of the water supply system, including main conduits and the distribution pipelines networks, together with building service pipes (approximately 70% of the total length of the system in use). As a result 641 cases of disturbed pipe tightness were detected. Nearly half of them constituted the leaks, which were yet not visible at the surface - therefore they were ‘the most valuable’ leaks as far as shortening the emergency period is concerned. Since the average duration of a leak before its spontaneous appearance on the surface is about 100 days, such inspection is very valuable to reduce substantially water losses.
From a wider perspective of the reduction of water losses within the water supply system, pressure has to be considered as it has direct effects on the limitation of leaks. Pressure influences not only the discharge of water from the places where the pipe tightness has been disturbed, but it also directly translates into the occurrence of subsequent emergencies. Hence, it is a good practice to reduce the pressure in the selected zones to the necessary minimum, adjusting it simultaneously to daily and yearly demands.
Regular replacement of pipes is another factor contributing to the reduction of water losses within the water supply system. In particular, those pipelines characterized by the greatest failure frequency should be replaced.
As a result of five years of intensive works a downward trend in the water losses within the water supply system operated by the Company has been strengthened. Data on the amounts of water losses per 1 km of the water supply system operated by the Company are presented below. The chart also contains average water losses in large water supply companies in Poland, as published by the ‘Izba Gospodarcza Wodociągi Polskie’ [the Economic Chamber of Polish Water Supply Companies]. These data are also included in the most recent issue of the Environmental Declaration -page 27.

Water - qualitative aspect.

Obviously, water is the focus of the Company's interest not only in quantitative but also in qualitative aspects.
Due to numerous outcrops of limestone rocks and, in the greater part of the area, absence of natural layers protecting water-bearing horizons, groundwater resources from the Major Groundwater Basin no. 326 used by the Company as a source of water are vulnerable for contamination from the surface and, consequently, a subject of progressive degradation of the chemical status.
In order to protect the quality of groundwater resources the Company has implemented an Integrated System for Management and Protection of water resources of the upper Jurassic Major Groundwater Basin no 326. The System has been implemented in cooperation with the Częstochowa University of Technology and the Upper Silesian Branch of the Polish Geological Institute in Sosnowiec.
The main objective of this System is to allow measures for earlier detection of possible risks of groundwater contamination, thereby making the qualitative protection of water resources and their effective management more efficient.
The System constitutes a basis for the optimization of water intakes operation (water extraction regime), and ensures systematic quantitative and qualitative protection of groundwater resources. The optimization of the operation of water intakes and individual wells is implemented based on the verification of forecasts regarding the distribution of contaminants concentrations determined from the results of numerical modelling of groundwater flow and transport of contaminants in the part of the Major Groundwater Basin no. 326 exploited by the Company, with allowances made for:

• hydraulic control of groundwater flow conditions to protect the wells against contamination and to reduce the contamination loads in groundwater,
• local and protective monitoring of groundwater quality,
• delineation of protection zones of water intakes,
• provisions in land development plans on the areas, where groundwater is vulnerable to contamination from the surface.

The System developed includes research guidelines and the interpretation of results, forecasts and anticipated effects for the selected scenarios of water management, as well as recommendations for  the directions of land use, especially in the areas, where groundwater resources are vulnerable to contamination.