Build March Issue

Build Magazine 34 iltbuster was founded by Dr Richard Coulton, one of the world’s leading authorities on water treatment. The company’s roots were initially in providing specialist systems and advice for treating mine water. Early projects included designing and commissioning the Wheal Jane Mine Water Treatment Plant in Cornwall for the Environment Agency and providing technical support to DEFRA on the environmental issues relating to the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak. In 2003 Richard Coulton switched his attention to the construction sector launching “Siltbuster FB50” a portable water treatment plant for construction sites. This was immediately adopted as best environmental practices by BAA for the treatment of runoff waters produced during the construction of Terminal 5. This success prompted the company to rebrand itself as Siltbuster. Since then it has carved a name as an expert at treating site runoff, groundwater and process waters on construction and remediation projects. Siltbuster equipment helps the sector meet today’s environmental pressures, with its fleet of 200 treatment systems routinely out on hire. Siltbuster regularly works with most of the UK largest construction companies and its equipment has been used on virtually all the large construction projects undertaken in the UK over the last 10 years. It has helped tackle the dirty water produced by construction projects ranging from the Olympics and Cross Rail in London, the reconstruction of New Street Station in Birmingham and the Devonport Royal Dockyard in Plymouth through to the construction of new petrochemical/gas terminals in Pembroke Wales, Shetlands and the Corrib Gas pipeline works. Siltbuster even supplied systems to help minimise the environmental impact of the raising of The Costa Concordia. Increasingly its equipment is deployed overseas too. Its exports have increased significantly in the last year, with its products being sold or hired to 32 countries including Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland and Australia. The company’s treatment solutions range from the temporary hire of small basic settlement units, right up to full chemical pre-treatment and solids liquid separation systems for large long term projects. Siltbuster’s solutions for the construction sector include the Big pHil Mk 2 which handles concrete washout waters from column skips and high volume pours. Siltbuster HD is a mobile unit for handling wash water on hydro-demolition projects, slashing the timescales for such projects by up to 30%. For smaller construction companies it devised its Site Essentials Range - for handling the three most common water pollution problems on construction sites - silty water, recovering oil and treating high pH concrete wash water. All the equipment provided by Siltbuster is designed in house and manufactured at its site in South Wales. This operation is set to double with the announcement of plans to develop a new 10-acre head office complex. Equipment Supplier of theMonth S