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lakefisher
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 Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:15 pm Post subject: Ban ‘permitted discharge’ of foul water into rivers |
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You may like to consider supporting this petition
"Permitted Discharges" affect ALL rivers - perhaps one near you ?
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/330416
Please sign and share ..........Tony
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tenet
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| Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:48 am Post subject: |
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Fryfishing
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Allrounder
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Location: Somerset. UK
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| Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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Further proof if it is needed that the point of a government 'Task Force' is to give the illusion of action being taken in order to avoid any meaningful action being taken. 
The so called 'Storm Overflows Taskforce' was made up of Defra, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Consumer Council for Water, Blueprint for Water and Water UK and of course the outcome of their deliberations were that they all agreed to set a long-term goal to eliminate harm from storm overflows (ie Look! we're taking action!) without actually setting a timescale or plan of action to achieve this thus making sure that nothing meaningful will happen. 
Alan
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Fryfishing
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:21 am Post subject: |
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We currently have an issue with Thames Water discharging raw sewage into the river Chess at Chesham. It is the only chalk stream in the area (as far as I know) and has spawning grounds for wild trout.
A gent called Paul Jennings who is Chairman of the River Chess Association is publicising the regular practice of the sewage run off and so is the A.T. But of course, T.W are not breaking the law as far as the E.A and government are concerned.
P
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wylye
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| Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:13 am Post subject: |
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The problem is a matter of storage. For the last twenty years or more the water companies have been permitted to discharge untreated sewage into the rivers during periods of high flows. Understandably enough they have not bothered to increase storage of this sewage because they didn't need it. In many cases, and I suspect Chesham is one, space to actually build the tanks is going to be a problem.
Therefore, in order to reduce or stop the discharge it is going to be necessary to build more storage tanks. This will cost a considerable amount of money, and as usual the consumer will end up paying for it, though if OFWAT gets on board then it may not be too painful. Nevertheless we, as fishermen, would or should, be willing to cough up, our next door neighbours who don't fish are not going to be quite as happy about it. As far as they are concerned, fish are nasty, slimy, smelly things best not seen at all, or if they are, should be those lovely colourful things we see on our TV screens swimming around a coral reef. Alternatively best seen covered in batter with a bowl of chips.
The good thing about the Task Force is that the water companies now know that we are not going away, and we will continue to make life awkward for them through our various angling organisations. Lots of TV footage showing crude sh*t flowing into our rivers sends a powerful message to the general public, that message being, "do you want your kids playing in this?" We may have lost a battle, but we certainly are a long way from losing the war. |
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Fryfishing
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:12 am Post subject: |
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In the Saturday Guardian on page 23 is an article about farm pollution in rivers because of a lack of enforcement or fines from the E.A.
What I found most interesting about the artical was that the Angling Trust was referred to as the "Rivers Trust" with comments from Mark Lloyd. On three occasion so it was not a typo.
My guess is the Angling Trust might be a tad to radical for Guardian readers to accept 
Also the EA records show they only sent out 14 warning letters since 2018 and zero prosecutions.
P
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Allrounder
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:43 am Post subject: |
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When I saw Mark Lloyds name I thought it was a mistake too but no, there is a 'Rivers Trust' and former Angling Trust man Mark Lloyd is their CEO. I haven't read their mission statement but I note they sell merchandise with the slogan 'Swim Paddle Catch Play' which probably sits better with the Guardian readership that the Angling Trusts single issue approach. 
Alan
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wylye
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| Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Fryfishing wrote: |
In the Saturday Guardian on page 23 is an article about farm pollution in rivers because of a lack of enforcement or fines from the E.A.
What I found most interesting about the artical was that the Angling Trust was referred to as the "Rivers Trust" with comments from Mark Lloyd. On three occasion so it was not a typo.
My guess is the Angling Trust might be a tad to radical for Guardian readers to accept
Also the EA records show they only sent out 14 warning letters since 2018 and zero prosecutions.
P |
Broadly speaking there are two types of pollution. There is the Point source pollution which is where a pollutant enters a watercourse at one place in considerable amounts and in a short time period. These are usually serious and major pollutions that cause significant damage to fish and invertebrate life alike. The positive side of these is that they are frequently easy to trace. The muck comes in at point A and there is the source of it - a STW, farm, upside down tanker on a road or industrial estate. The other positive is that in the longer term they usually don't do too much lasting harm. The river recovers surprisingly quickly and there are always more survivors than might be expected.
The other pollution is a diffuse pollution. This is an on-going drip drip of a pollutant that can go undetected for days, weeks or months. There is no convenient tide of dead fish to ring the alarm bells, and as invert monitoring the the Agency is done relatively infrequently impacts on the inverts can often go unseen for a considerable period. The sort of diffuse pollution often comes from farm drains and are notoriously difficult to find and trace back to their sources. Farm drains and tiny ditches can trickle along for miles un-noticed and unseen, an even if it is seen it is difficult and time-consuming to trace it back. It's no good saying that Farmer Giles is the nearest so it must be him because there could be Farmer Brown further up and Farmer Green further still.
As far as prosecutions are concerned, each EA Area has a Prosecution Panel which meets every month and all disciplines attend. In Thames Region I attended a few of these along with colleagues from Flood defence, Water Quality, Waste Regulation and Navigation. All offences reported in the previous month would be discussed and decisions taken as to the action to be taken. There could be no action, a written warning, a formal caution or prosecution. Prosecutions are very expensive and the Agency needs to be very sure of its ground before going down this route. In many cases for minor offences a written warning is the preferred option but this is a matter of record. If Farmer Giles is sent a written warning and receives advice as to his future actions to prevent recurrence then this is a satisfactory outcome. If there is no improvement then the next stage of a formal caution will follow. This also a matter of record. Not many are so silly as to continue their bad ways.
Certainly if there is a major event that results in a fish mortality then we are out there counting bodies, species and sizes. There is a system by which fish species are valued according to numbers and sizes. Also, those officers attending complete a form recording their grade and seniority and the hours spent investigating the incident, reporting it and carrying out post-pollution surveys. This so that the Court can award costs in accordance with the severity of the offence.
Because the EA has more work to do monitoring rivers than they can cope with, the frequency of the monitoring is not enough. The EA is very aware of this which is why the River Fly Monitoring project came into effect. Keen volunteers undergo training in invert id and then monitor their chosen stretch of river on a monthly basis. This has been a great success though I suspect the Covid issue has impacted on it. |
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