Scottish Water: no health hazard from Argyll sludge pond

Scottish Water have confirmed that the Argyll sludge pond mentioned in the Sunday Herald article on 5th August was a drinking water treatment plant and not a sewage treatment one.

They have told us that most of these ponds, some over 50 years old – they are only larger in heavily populated urban areas – have long since returned to soil; and that this is the case with the former facility near Furnace.

Our enterprising searches on Google Earth led us up a forest path. The reality is that the facility near Furnace is marked ‘Closed and retired’. It was at the side of the A83 after leaving the village northwards, within the curtilage of the old Furnace Treatment Works.

We have been assured that there is no health hazard associated with this site and that the best  modern sludge treatment is about returning it to soil – which is what has happened here naturally.