The Water Pages
EA Water quality report “woefully short on action” to control runoff pollution, experts warn
An Environment Agency (EA) state-of-the-nation update, warning that 86% of England’s water bodies fail to meet ‘good’ status, is strong on facts but falls woefully short on action to tackle surface water pollution, drainage experts are warning.
The EA’s report “The State of the Environment: Water Quality” (19.2.18) acknowledges that harmful pollution from urban and transport run-off is a major contributor to water quality failures. However, no action is demanded to tackle the threat from toxic metals, hydrocarbons and microplastics washed into the aquatic environment during heavy storms.
“The report is weak, disappointing and sidesteps the need for action to prevent pollution from urban and highway runoff,” says Jo Bradley who spent more than 20 years working for the Environment Agency in the North West before joining SDS as a specialist advisor on water quality last year.
“The report estimates that the urban and transport sector accounts for 13% of all activities preventing water bodies from achieving ‘good status’, compared to 28% of water industry activities and 31% from agriculture.
“Yet it singles out farmers and Water Companies for action to reduce polluting discharges into rivers, without naming one single measure to tackle diffuse and point-source discharges from urban and transport runoff.
“These shortcomings highlight the imbalance between the investments rightly made in wastewater treatment to prevent pollutants including Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and toxic metals from being discharged into rivers, while highway outfalls that are part of the very same catchments remain completely uncontrolled.
“Pollution from brake and tyre erosion, exhaust fumes and oil spills are known to contain chemicals which are toxic to the aquatic environment and to inhibit reproductive success in aquatic invertebrates. This pollution is, therefore, highly likely to be a major contributor to the water quality issues responsible for 38% of all fish test failures and 61% of all invertebrate failures recorded in the report’s Key Findings.
Jo Bradley is Market
Development Manager with SDS Limited.
“The report states that the chemicals found in rivers that exceed European Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) include a range of harmful metals. Highway runoff is a key source of metals pollution.
“A key challenge is the lack of long-term data on chemical substance failures, a problem alluded to in the report. Additionally, a significant proportion of water bodies, classed as ‘Do Not Require Assessment’ (DNRA), are given ‘good’ status, even though they are not monitored at all.
“The Environment Agency’s figures state that of the 4679 waterbodies in
1. Environment Agency: WFD Surface Water Bodies in England: Classification Status and Objectives - Cycle 2_2015 data 2. Moy, F., Crabtree, R. W. & Simms, T. (2003) The Long-Term Monitoring of Pollution from Highway Runoff: Final Report. R&D Technical Report P2-038/TR1 F
50 drain TRADER | April 2018 |
www.draintraderltd.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
