The Water Supply and Sewerage Joint Stock Company of the Częstochowa District [Przedsiębiorstwo Wodociągów i Kanalizacji Okręgu Częstochowskiego S.A.] is a public utility company with 83 years of tradition. According to the ranking of ‘Dziennik Gazeta Prawna’ journal of 2011, it is one of 3 most modern and best water supply companies in Poland. In this assessment not only technological and economic issues were take into account, but also:

• the involvement of companies in the life of local communities,
• its integration with the society,
• the quality policy implemented,
• the participation in acquiring EU funds.

While improving its activities, the Company has been subject to continual changes related to its functioning in the more and more demanding and changing environment. It is a professional and trustworthy service provider, and a reliable partner rendering services of water supply, as well as sewage collection and subsequent treatment. The company also provides professional services within the scope of: cleaning and maintaining sewerage systems, television inspection of pipes and deep wells, servicing of pumps, legalization and repairs of water meters, and carrying out physical and chemical analyses of water and sewage in its own licensed laboratory.
The Company is consistently taking care of high standards and comfort related to customer service, consumer health and protection of the environment. Currently, the Company is operating 52 deep wells (the deepest well is of 525 m). The wells are grouped in 4 basic and 14 auxiliary water intakes of the total water abstraction yield of 134,700 m3/d. The water intakes are connected through a network of main conduits with distribution pipelines networks and service pipes of the total length of over 2,268 km. The ring network system ensures continuity and reliability of water supply to all consumers within the entire central water system covering an area of 1,000 km2. The Company is responsible for water abstraction, purification and distribution, as well as collection and treatment of sewage for the population of approximately 350,000.
Water abstraction from natural resources, sewage treatment and discharge into the water environment along with waste management - are nowadays, in the days of civilization development in its broad sense, those fields of activity which require a particularly disciplined approach. Only rational exploitation of the natural environment guarantees the maintenance of ecological balance with the preservation of its beauty. The care of this environment in the Company is specifically manifested in: compliance with legal norms and regulations, implementation of highly effective technologies, application of modern technological solutions, organization of regular ecological education and creating opportunities for the involvement of all interested parties.

In 2004 the Company implemented an Integrated Management System consisting of the Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2001) and Environmental Management System (ISO 14001:2005). It has substantially streamlined, systematized and improved the management of the Company. Moreover, in June 2008 the Company successfully underwent the verification of the compliance with the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). The Company was the first Polish organization providing collective water supply and sewage collection and treatment services registered in the EMAS. The Company's presence in the EMAS is a confirmation of its affiliation with the European pro-ecological elite and a guarantee of sustainable management of the basic strategic resource which water is.
The implemented Environmental Management System due to the developed systemic and operational procedures and the environmental management programme:

• improves the identification of legal requirements and makes it more effective - it guarantees that the Company has a full picture of its obligations in this respect and allows it to avoid any possible fines (increased charges),
• decreases the risk of environmental emergencies by the identification of potential environmental hazards,
• raises the awareness of the Company's impact on the natural environment by permanent monitoring of environmental aspects,
• contributes to the limitation of costs related to the protection of the environment,
• improves its image - the Company, by making the environmental data (e.g. groundwater abstraction rates, quantity and quality of treated sewage discharged to surface waters, etc.) available to the public, becomes more credible, which, in the case of the enterprise that is a natural monopolist, is worth emphasizing,
• strengthens and intensifies the commitment of employees and all the interested parties to the continuous improvement of the Company's environmental performance.

Environmental aspects.

The environmental aspects have been identified in compliance with the systemic procedure Identification of environmental aspects’. All identified environmental aspects are subject to the assessment. In 2011 the criteria mentioned below were taken into account for the assessment:

• influence of legal requirements and other requirements,
• scope and time of interaction with the natural environment,
• risk of exceeding permissible concentrations of contaminants (sewage),
• likelihood of emergency,
• environmental costs,
• influence on the Company's image.

Selected significant environmental aspects:

• groundwater abstraction rates,
• water losses during abstraction and distribution,
• organic matter content in sewage,
• stabilized municipal sewage sludge,
• exfiltration of wastewater from the sewer system to the ground,
• quality and quantity protection of groundwater resources of the Major Groundwater Basin 326,
• hazardous waste,
• industrial sewage containing substances particularly harmful to the water environment that are discharged to sanitary sewerage (indirect aspect).

Selected environmental objectives:

• reduction of water losses in the water supply system operated by the Company by 3.5% in comparison to water losses in 2006,
• reduction of the exfiltration of wastewater from the sewer system to the ground and groundwater by repair works,
• reduction of odour nuisance from the liquid waste collection station in Częstochowa,
• maintenance of high effectiveness of the wastewater treatment plant in Blachownia.
  

Water losses in the water supply system in 2006 - 2010

Due to the type of Company’s activity, the main focus of our interest, and at the same time the invaluable resource, is Water, both in the quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Water - quantitative aspect.

The main environmental objective that the Company has imposed on itself is the reduction of water losses within the water supply system in the process of its distribution, as well as the promotion of rational use of water among Customers. The environmental objective is a direct result of the Company's current environmental policy containing a declaration on rational management of water resources.
In the case of our Customers, we encourage them to use water in a rational manner in the so-called soft way, i.e. through the OPEN DAYS organized on the occasions of the World Water Day and World Water Week, during which we inform about their objectives and goals, as well as by information leaflets.
As concerns the Company, rational water management is implemented mainly by the improvement of functioning of the water supply system and reduction of water losses in the process of its distribution. For this purpose in 2007 the Company purchased a vehicle equipped with specialized diagnostic devices (a correlator, loggers, a geophone, a listening rod and a pipe tracer) for acoustic detection of noise made by water leaks from the damaged pipeline. The use of this equipment allows for gradual determination, with great precision, of emergency network fragments, i.e. places where the tightness of the water supply system has been disturbed. The inspection is based on the implementation of the process called ‘Active Control of Leaks’. In order to detect disturbed tightness of pipes inspections of the water supply system are carried out in the selected areas with specifically defined frequency.
Within 2007 - 2010 the inspection was made of nearly 1,241 km of the water supply system, including main conduits and the distribution pipelines networks, together with building service pipes (approximately 50% of the total length of the system in use). As a result 894 cases of disturbed pipe tightness were detected. Nearly half of them constituted the leaks, which were yet not visible at the surface - therefore they were ‘the most valuable’ leaks as far as shortening the emergency period is concerned. Since the average duration of a leak before its spontaneous appearance on the surface is about 100 days, such inspection is very valuable to reduce substantially water losses.
From a wider perspective of the reduction of water losses within the water supply system, pressure has to be considered as it has direct effects on the limitation of leaks. Pressure influences not only the discharge of water from the places where the pipe tightness has been disturbed, but it also directly translates into the occurrence of subsequent emergencies. Hence, it is a good practice to reduce the pressure in the selected zones to the necessary minimum, adjusting it simultaneously to daily and yearly demands.
Regular replacement of pipes is another factor contributing to the reduction of water losses within the water supply system. In particular, those pipelines characterized by the greatest failure frequency should be replaced.
As a result of five years of intensive works a downward trend in the water losses within the water supply system operated by the Company has been strengthened. Data on the amounts of water losses per 1 km of the water supply system operated by the Company are presented below. The chart also contains average water losses in large water supply companies in Poland, as published by the ‘Izba Gospodarcza Wodociągi Polskie’ [the Economic Chamber of Polish Water Supply Companies]. These data are also included in the most recent issue of the Environmental Declaration -page 28.

Water - qualitative aspect.

Obviously, water is the focus of the Company's interest not only in quantitative but also in qualitative aspects.
Due to numerous outcrops of limestone rocks and, in the greater part of the area, absence of natural layers protecting water-bearing horizons, groundwater resources from the Major Groundwater Basin no. 326 used by the Company as a source of water are vulnerable for contamination from the surface and, consequently, a subject of progressive degradation of the chemical status.
In order to protect the quality of groundwater resources the Company has implemented an Integrated System for Management and Protection of water resources of the upper Jurassic Major Groundwater Basin no 326. The System has been implemented in cooperation with the Częstochowa University of Technology and the Upper Silesian Branch of the Polish Geological Institute in Sosnowiec.
The main objective of this System is to allow measures for earlier detection of possible risks of groundwater contamination, thereby making the qualitative protection of water resources and their effective management more efficient.
The System constitutes a basis for the optimization of water intakes operation (water extraction regime), and ensures systematic quantitative and qualitative protection of groundwater resources. The optimization of the operation of water intakes and individual wells is implemented based on the verification of forecasts regarding the distribution of contaminants concentrations determined from the results of numerical modelling of groundwater flow and transport of contaminants in the part of the Major Groundwater Basin no. 326 exploited by the Company, with allowances made for:

• hydraulic control of groundwater flow conditions to protect the wells against contamination and to reduce the contamination loads in groundwater,
• local and protective monitoring of groundwater quality,
• delineation of protection zones of water intakes,
• provisions in land development plans on the areas, where groundwater is vulnerable to contamination from the surface.

The System developed includes research guidelines and the interpretation of results, forecasts and anticipated effects for the selected scenarios of water management, as well as recommendations for  the directions of land use, especially in the areas, where groundwater resources are vulnerable to contamination.

The examples presented above are the most important, but not the only ones indicating the Company's commitment to the continuous improvement in environmental performance. Also, they are a proof of the systematic approach to these issues, which guarantees, among other things, that the set goals will be systematically and continually realized.

Being a part of the European pro-ecological elite, the Company guarantees that it will manage the basic strategic resource that water is in compliance with the principles of sustainability, and the subsequent chapters of the Company's history will be written, as it has been until now, by committed, creative, responsible and daily-work performed professionals – the Company’s staff, as well as by cooperating partners.