United Utilities is the UK’s largest listed water company. The company is involved with fracking in a variety of ways; offering 141,000 acres of land, supplying fresh water for fracking operations and providing a direct water main connection to the proposed Preston New Road test site.
United Utilities also operates the Davyhulme Wastewater Treatment Works in Greater Manchester, one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in Europe.
Davyhulme has previously been used to dump 2 million gallons of radioactive fracking waste from Cuadrilla Resource’s Preese Hall fracking site in Lancashire. The fracking waste was discharged into the Manchester Ship Canal.
It was only after action by the local MP and extensive FOI requests that the truth about the waste was discovered. A change in regulation mean that Davyhulme can no longer accept fracking waste and forced Cuadrilla to look for alternative sites for disposal. Read more…