Where there's Muck, there's Brass (and Data)

A phrase attributed to the fine folk of Yorkshire, in the UK, it is loosely pronounced “in them there parts o’er there” as “wear therrs mook therrs brass” (with “brass” pronounced like “mass” not “bra’s”). In short, there is money to be made from mucky activities (including gold, platinum and silver according to research in 2015 I discovered).

But not everyone will agree….

As negative publicity, and fines, mount for pollution events, a number of English utilities may certainly be wondering who exactly is the beneficiary of that mucky money.

In 2021, one utility was fined £90m for multiple illegal pollution discharges whilst another has paid out more than £32m in fines since 2017. Indeed, the UK Environment Agency has even taken to mentioning imprisonment for water utility CEOs if pollution events are not reduced.

Of course, the actual position is more nuanced than that, which is all very interesting but why should Syrinix care?

After all, our specialties are in leak detection and high-resolution pressure monitoring to help utilities reduce leaks and bursts.

What’s the connection?

Well, over the last few years we have gradually been increasing our activity in the wastewater sector, too, bringing high-resolution monitoring to pressurised wastewater systems (rising/force mains according to your country).

With Anglian Water in the UK, Western Lake Superior in the USA, and an increasing number of other utilities, too, we have been monitoring pressurised wastewater systems and alerting for performance degradation and bursts as part of utilities’ own initiatives to reduce pollution events and extend asset lifetimes (with immediate financial benefits for our utility clients too).