The Raymond Priestley Centre is an outdoor activity centre owned and operated by the University of Birmingham situated on the shores of Coniston Water in the Lake District National Park. The centre provides residential courses throughout the year for Birmingham University staff and students as well as members of other academic institutions, sports clubs and corporate clients.

The relatively remote positioning of the site necessitates an offline, bespoke water management system for the treatment of sewage and grey water generated on site. Once treated, this water has to be discharged into the local environment. The existing wastewater treatment system was established in the early 1970’s and comprised a septic tank and a soakaway system. The centre is popular and increasing numbers of people are attending courses each year, thus there was concern about the existing water treatment systems capacity to maintain adequate treatment.