A pipeline has been commissioned making a direct connection to a treatment works and boosting Tees Valley environment and business.

The £200,000 "green vein" pipeline is carrying liquid waste from Vopak Teesside on the north bank of the River Tees at Seal Sands into an existing pipeline to Northumbrian Water's treatment plant at Bran Sands on the south side of the estuary.

Vopak is the first storage and logistics specialist of its kind to install a direct pipeline connection for the biological treatment of chemical waste. The pipeline passes through an existing tunnel under the river.

Northumbrian Water and Vopak have signed a ten-year contract for the waste to be biologically treated alongside other domestic and industrial waste streams before the purified water is returned to the river environment.

Vopak Teesside operates the UK's largest specialist chemical storage site and is responsible for receiving, storing and distributing more than three million tonnes of liquid chemicals every year, on behalf of major chemicals producers world-wide.

David Bishop, Vopak's UK managing director, said: "We were happy to make this investment because industry has to acknowledge that it has a duty to look after the environment."