The organisation was created in 1927 by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as the Water Pollution Research Board. The Board had no laboratories and fulfilled its remit of providing research and advice on sewage treatment by outsourcing and conducting surveys. Laboratory facilities finally became available in 1940 when WPRL acquired an old house in Watford. During the Second World War WPRL also worked in other areas, notably the creation of a device for airmen to make sea water acceptable as drinking water. In 1955 the WPRL moved to a purpose-built laboratory in Stevenage, and here it is associated with the first systematic analyses of sewage treatment. Following the 1974 reorganisation of the UK water supply industry both WPRL and the Water Resources Board were hived off from the Civil Service and merged with the Water Research Association to form a quango, controlled by the publicly owned regional water authorities. The WRA had been founded in 1953 and provided research and advice on drinking water treatment to the municipal bodies responsible for drinking water supply; it was based at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire. The new organisation was renamed the Water Research Centre. In 1989 the Water Research Centre was privatised and renamed WRc plc, as part of the privatisation of the UK water industry. As part of the process a small offshoot, the Foundation for Water Research, was created and the Stevenage site was shut down. In 2004 the Medmenham site was also closed, leaving Swindon as WRc's main site. Today the WRc Group employs around 100 staff. Its shares are mainly owned by its staff and UK water companies.
Achievements
Notable WRc achievements include: 1960s
First analysis that activated sludge nitrification could be mathematically modelled
Development of the standard approach to minimising the effects of bulking sludge on activated sludge
Only public body of extensive research of trickling filters
Development of the SSVI technique for analysing activated sludge settleability
Development of the first mass-flux based analysis of activated sludge settler design
Development of two standard assessment techniques for sludge thickening and dewatering, the CST and PFT
1980s
Water-industry standard techniques for assessing sludge rheology, and a general correlation for rheological properties used in the absence of experimental data
Development of techniques for water mains and sewer rehabilitation, without requiring extensive digging and replacing of pipes
Co-development with the UK water industry of the Urban Pollution Management procedure, the first formal procedure for analysing water pollution at the catchment level, and which was one of the drivers for the subsequent EU legislation behind the Water Framework Directive
Comprehensive capital cost models used widely by the water companies, and recognised by OFWAT as a comparator for company-specific costs
Today
Today WRc works with a range of customers in the public and private sectors around the world. Its clients include:
