Eel screens are relatively fine mesh raw water intake screens with a low approach velocity so that fish young fish and eels are screened out and avoid entrapment on intakes. Eel screens and Eel screening may be required if you are pumping and screening raw water. You may be affected by the current Eel Regulations designed to help the recovery of populations of European Eels. The relevant legislation in the UK is ‘The Eels (England and Wales) Regulations 2009 Statutory Instrument No. 3344’, and ‘The EU Water Framework Directive – integrated river basin management for Europe‘.

The installation of low intake velocity eel screens ahead of pumping equipment may be a condition of your water abstraction licence in England and Wales.

In the USA the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put in place measures to protect aquatic wildlife – in particular the measures outlined in the Clean Water Act Section 316(b).  These regulations are similar to the European Eel Regulations in that they stipulate intake velocities and mesh size sat water intakes.  The relevant US legislation is the EPA’s ‘CWA 316(b) Cooling Water Intake Structures‘.

To comply with current rules and regulations you need an intake screen of 2 mm aperture mesh or less and to constrain the intake velocity on intake to 0.1 or 0.15  metres a second (0.5 feet per second), depending on location.

Rotorflush self-cleaning Eel Screens are designed for minimum size for a given flow rate.  Our Eel screens have tensioned mesh bodies that maximize the mesh open area.  In addition, all our self-cleaning basket strainers and eel screens incorporated our unique self-cleaning mechanism that constantly backwashes the screen mesh to prevent weed and other debris from blocking and blinding the 2 mm screens.

Browse our product range to find out more.

Rotorflush suction side and gravity fed self-cleaning eel screens can typically be installed without significant capital works. Their cylindrical design and ease of use often make them the most cost-effective answer to the need for fish and eel screening.

Because they all have an inbuilt backwash system, maintenance is minimal and downtime is reduced.