58. 19-05-21 How Do We Ensure Water Quality After Brexit?

It was a great pleasure to host the 12th in our series of Water Conservators webinars titled “How Do We Ensure Water Quality After Brexit?” presented by Professor Sean Comber of Plymouth University. Professor Comber began his talk by outlining his background, spending many years at WRC working on environmental monitoring, then with WS Atkins on projects driven by the European Framework Directive, and then finally with University of Plymouth.

He then went on to explain how the toxicity of metals in rivers are impacted by their form and ambient conditions and how European Quality Standards for phosphates assume all phosphorus is soluble and bioavailable, whereas the bioavailable phosphorus is dependent many factors such as suspended solids. He also described the impact the river environment can have on the bioavailability of organics and pharmaceuticals, and the current regulatory set up around 50 priority and priority hazardous substances some with standards set just above the level of detection.

Professor Comber then outlined how quality standards are set with factors of safety being introduced at each level of the food chain to ensure a tolerable level of dietary intake in humans. The cost of compliance is enormous with £4bn of water industry investment planned for 2020-25 mostly for phosphorus removal at Sewage Treatment Works. Finally, he suggested a possible way forward for the future compliance of metals, phosphate and organics that includes a bioavailability assessment, along with more toxicity testing and the better management of pharmaceuticals at source as an effective way of reducing risk at a reasonable cost.

Professor Comber’s presentation was then followed by an excellent question and answer session where some of the key challenges for the UK water sector post Brexit were discussed. On behalf of everyone I would again like to thank Professor Comber for an excellent presentation, and also give my thanks to everyone who attended making the webinar a great success.

57. 11-05-21 Searching For London’s Lost Rivers

Tonight, I attended a very interesting webinar hosted by the City of Westminster Libraries and Archives on “Searching for London’s Lost Rivers” presented by Dr Tom Bolton. Tom Bolton is a writer, researcher and photographer who lives in Streatham, works in urban design and policy, and is the author of 5 books including 2 volumes on “London’s Lost Rivers – A Walkers Guide”.

During his presentation Tom explained how many of these “Lost Rivers” were still alive but now as part of the sewer system, however, glimpses of them could be seen under drainage covers, or in the case of the River Westbourne running across Sloane Square tube station in a pipe. Then Tom decided to focus on some of the lesser know rivers including the Black Ditch and Stamford Brook. It was a fascinating talk with topical stories related to the rivers, and many wonderful illustrations. This was followed by an interesting Q&A session in which Tom explained how the Serpentine had been created from the River Westbourne and Highgate ponds were the source of the River Fleet, originally dammed for public water supply. My thanks go to Tom and the City of Westminster Libraries and Archives for an excellent webinar.

56. 07-05-21 Election Court Meeting

Today, I attended our Election Court meeting where the Court elects the company officials for the coming year. The Court re-elected Christine Duthie, Ken Marsh and Guy Titman as Court Assistants and also appointed 4 new Court Assistants, Colin Drummond, Tom Flood, Roger Hewitt and Carolyn Roberts. Graham Howells was then elected as Master for 2021/22, along with Christine Jarvis as Thames Warden, Colin Drummond as Fleet Warden and Martin Bigg as Walbrook Warden.

The Court also appointed Ken Marsh as Treasurer and myself as Publicity Manager. My congratulations go to all the officers appointed. The Court also received a report from the Finance, Membership and General Purposes Committee and approved the annual quarterage, Court fines and proposed Company budget for 2021/22.

55. 27-04-21 Cobham Lecture – Towards Zero-Emission Flight

Tonight, I attended the Cobham Lecture hosted by The Honourable Company of Air Pilots titled “Towards Zero-Emission Flight & the Fastest Electric-Powered Aircraft”, and presented by Matheu Parr, Senior Programme Manager, and Chris Hadlow, Chief Pilot, at Rolls-Royce plc.

Matheu Parr is the Customer Business Director for Rolls-Royce Electrical, a newly formed business within Rolls-Royce group focussed upon delivery of complete electrical propulsion systems to the general aerospace market such as Urban Air Mobility & Commuter aircraft.  Matheu is also leading this highly specialised charge to build the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft.  With a technical background in electrical engineering as well as project management, he is responsible for the delivery of this high performance zero-emissions plane.

Matheu began his talk by explaining how electrification is an inescapable trend across aerospace markets as we all seek cleaner, more sustainable power. The ACCEL project is intended to pioneer this third wave of aviation through a highly specialised goal of building the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. ACCEL will help us bring forward the adoption of zero-emission flight, while also looking to stimulate the development of an electric aircraft supply chain, and of course make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ mph.

He explained how the aircraft they had built to challenge the current speed  record of 220 mph called “Spirit of Innovation” was inspired by Rolls Royce’s participation in building engines for the Snider Trophy 100 years ago which ultimately lead to the development of the Spitfire.

Chris began his talk by outlining his RAF flying career as a Jaguar pilot on No 6 Squadron and whilst in the RAF he also completed a tour as an instructor on the Hawk, as well as an exchange tour on the Alphajet in France.  In 2006 Chris joined British Airways flying A320s until a year later when an opportunity came up to fly the Gulfstream 450 for Rolls-Royce which he has been doing ever since. Chris’ latest role sees him as Project Pilot for Future Programmes where he will be involved in a significant number of the projects that Rolls-Royce are pursuing whilst pioneering electric and hybrid electric propulsion. He explained how critical weight was in the aircraft design and that included his own weight as the pilot.

The lecture was followed a question and answer session led by the Nick Goodwyn, Master, and Paul Tacon, Clerk of the Air Pilots Company. My thanks go to Master and Clerk, and both presenters for a fascinating lecture on the future of electric powered aircraft.