Yorkshire Water is trialling a revolutionary fibreglass manhole cover as it looks at additional ways of combatting metal theft which is costing the company hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.

Soaring commodity prices are fuelling the underground market for copper, lead and other non-ferrous metals, with thieves going to any lengths in order to cash in on the price boom.

The company is currently reporting an average of £20,000 in metal thefts a month from its region-wide network. In 2011 alone, the company spent approximately £410,000 replacing stolen metal parts from its operational sites and facilities.

Recent incidents include the theft of copper at a water pumping station in East Hull which could have had severe consequences had the pumps been required to pump away any storm water. In this case the thieves were caught and successfully prosecuted.

One particular problem for the company is the theft of manhole covers with hundreds being replaced last year. Not only is this theft costing a significant amount of money, but it is also putting lives at risk. Indeed, the company has already seen a number of incidents where unsuspecting members of the public have injured themselves on open manholes, after their covers had been removed and stolen for scrap.

In addition, the theft of metals and equipment from treatment sites and other facilities can increase the risk of potential pollution incidents as treatment processes are jeopardised and in some cases even temporarily stopped.

However, the company is fighting back through the deployment of a number of technologies, including fibreglass manhole covers, in a trial which if successful, could see them rolled out across much of the water company's vast network. As well as being more durable, the plastic covers are also cheaper to install, and most importantly they have little or no scrap value.

The company has also installed CCTV cameras and motion sensors around its sites and facilities to ensure alarms are triggered at the merest hint of thieves, with regular guard-dog assisted site patrols also in place to act as a further deterrent to potential thieves.

Peter Ramsay, security and emergency planning manager, comments:

"Metal theft is a serious issue for us and we're trialling a number of new initiatives, including using fibreglass manhole covers, in our ongoing efforts to reduce it.

"The problem ranges from the opportunist theft of one of our sewer or hydrant covers, to the organised theft of hundreds of meters of cable or copper pipe, and even larger appliances such as lifting equipment and generators, with thieves targeting any metals which they consider of value, often risking their lives, and those of others, in the process.

"Our trial to deploy fibreglass manhole covers to replace their metal counterparts is our latest initiative and one we're confident has the potential to make a real difference."

Andrew Burton of castings company Structural Science Composites, which produces the covers, comments:

"Our composite manhole covers cannot be melted down or reused. If a thief gets their hands on one of our covers, they'll realise very quickly that it's much lighter than a cast-iron cover and not worth stealing."

The company is also using red DNA coded grease which has been coated on machinery and equipment across selected Yorkshire Water sites.

Once daubed with the grease, which only shows up under ultra-violet light, any metal can be traced back to its owner - and the thief or receiver can be linked with the crime scene.

Yorkshire Water works closely with the police and the British Metal Recycling Association (BMRA) to help carry out unscheduled scrap yard checks as the vast majority of thieves try to sell their stolen metal on to scrap dealers.