Lower Basildon WwTW is owned and operated by Thames Water and is situated within the grounds of Beale Park seven miles North West of Reading. The works serves a PE 166 (2011 – Average). Sewage is collected by gravity and conveyed to a coarse screen within a small rectangular chamber at the works. Screened sewage is then passed to six buried soak-away units. These tend to pool and flood during periods of high load.

The existing site has historically had no discharge consent, however, in 2011 the Environmental Agency (EA) introduced an indicative discharge consent of 30/45/5 (BOD/SS/NH3 mg/l) for groundwater. The groundwater consent was considered ‘tight’ and hence an indicative 95%ile new river discharge consent of 40/60 (BOD/SS mg/l) was also proposed to be effective from March 2014. The existing WwTW at Lower Basildon was unable to meet the requirement of either of the proposed consents and therefore Thames Water accepted the need for renewal of the current works under the quality driver for the future discharge to the River Thames.