An "incredibly important" project in a town near York is underway.

Yorkshire Water has begun a £7.3 million project at its Pocklington wastewater treatment site.

The work will reduce the phosphorus present in the treated wastewater, before it's returned to the environment. Once completed, it will improve the water quality of more than 2km of the river downstream of the treatment works in Pocklington Beck.  

Yorkshire Water says this will also reduce discharges to Pocklington Beck during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall. 

They added: "Phosphorus is a normal part of domestic sewage, entering the sewer system via domestic showers and washing machines due to products such as shampoo and liquid detergent containing phosphorus.

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"It can also wash off from agricultural fields after the use of fertilisers and be dissolved from soil which can be difficult to control. 

"While a small amount of phosphorus is harmless and is an essential part of many ecosystems, it can become damaging to human and animal life when unmanaged."

Mark Hewison, project manager at Yorkshire Water, added: "The scheme at Pocklington is one of a number of phosphorus reduction schemes that we have planned across Yorkshire and follows the completion of work to build a nature-first wastewater treatment process at the nearby Bishop Wilton wastewater treatment works.

"Improving the health of our rivers is incredibly important to us and our customers, which is why we have committed to investing £500 million in phosphorus removal by 2025."