SUSTAINABILITY
Farmer engagement benefits Ugie catchment
A catchment management scheme promoted by Scottish Water is improving water stewardship on farms and the quality reaching the works. Natasha Wiseman reports
Scottish Water initiative to protect key drinking water supply zones from diffuse pollution is being expanded to support a range of new measures. Preventing diffuse pollution means water is easier to treat at the treatment works, for the benefit of customers.
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Scottish Water’s Sustainable Land Management Incentive Scheme (SLMIS) was launched last year to help prevent substances such as pesticides from entering certain lochs and rivers which feed water treatment works. The initiative, which has a £3M/y budget to 2015, is initially targeted in six key water supply catchments, all identified for different pressures: n River Ugie and River Deveron catchments in Aberdeenshire – pesticides identified as main risk
n Loch of Lintrathen in Angus – nutrients, especially phosphorus, identified as main risk
n Craigendunton Reservoir in Ayrshire – colour identified as main risk
n Dumfries Aquifer catchment – nutrients identified as main risk
n Loch Ascog catchment in Argyll and Bute – nutrients, especially nitrates, identified as main risk
Given the range of issues, Scottish Water has devised an incentive scheme for farmers to help tackle them in the most appropriate way. The help on offer includes using alternative pesticides, constructing pesticide sprayer loading areas to help contain run-off from the farmyard and installing livestock fencing and watering. One option is a Biobed of soil, straw and peat- free compost that can absorb and treat washings. The number of possible measures supported by the scheme has recently been doubled and now includes items such as cultivation and drilling along the contour of the slopes, the creation of in-ditch seepage barriers and cross- drains under farm tracks. The most popular item applied for has been the Water Environment Management Plan (WEMP). This is a farm plan, produced by an independent qualified advisor,
22 Water & Wastewater Treatment August 2013
to identify the risk of diffuse pollution and recommend ways of managing this. Zoe Frogbrook, Scottish Water’s technical lead for sustainable catchment management, told WWT that since the scheme’s launch, the public utility has agreed to provide financial assistance to many farms across the River Ugie and River Deveron catchments. While the farmer liaison began last year, baseline monitoring of the catchments and training of five catchment liaison officers (CLOs) had been underway since spring 2011.
Trainee officers, drawn from Scottish Water’s existing personnel were initially seconded into the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to gain the necessary skills. The CLOs needed to know regulatory compliance legislation as well as gaining the softer stakeholder communications skills that Scottish Water lacked in-house. The Ugie catchment is where the scheme has been most heavily promoted and Frogbrook says she is “very pleased” that 14% of farmers are already engaged and some 60 applications for support have been submitted. She says that liaison will be “more intensive in the next few years”. WEMPs are the most popular aspect of the scheme with farmers, not least because the utility can offer 100% financing. Other measures have to comply with the EU’s State Aid Regulations to ensure they are not impacting on the business, so pesticide switching, for example, can only be financed at 60-70%.
WEMPs identify the risks of different pollutants and make recommendations on how a site can be improved. Farmers can name the person they wish to carry out the WEMP, as long as they have the appropriate certification for crop protection and fertiliser management.
“It’s a useful plan,” says Frogbrook, “it helps the farmer make improvements and provide protection for drinking water.”
The slug-deterrent metaldehyde poses a particular problem in the Ugie catchment and Scottish Water is now subsidising the cost difference for farmers to use the safer but more costly alternative, ferric phosphate. Farmers have
to repeatedly apply to use the individual items included in the scheme on an annual basis. The initial investigation undertaken by Scottish Water looked at the cost side of treatment versus sustainable land management at its Forehill water treatment works near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. It was demonstrated that reducing the pollution load would extend the life of filters and reduce cost. The extension of the SLMIS comes after Scottish Water also began a project to install additional treatment processes at Forehill in a bid to help better manage external impacts on the water supply. Delivery of this project, which comprises the installation of granular activated carbon filters, forms part of a commitment Scottish Water has given to Scottish Ministers to install and commission a new treatment process by March 2014.
Peter Brown, Scottish Water’s water quality regulation manager, said: “The vast majority of water in Scotland’s environment is unpolluted and, with treatment by Scottish Water, fit for customer consumption. Drinking water quality in Scotland is tested to ensure all customers enjoy its look and taste, and is at its highest ever level of quality.
“Drinking water is easier to treat if it arrives at our works in the best possible condition. That’s why, working together with land managers, owners and tenants, we launched the SLMIS last April to support innovative and sustainable approaches to prevent diffuse pollution from entering our water supply system, helping to protect this vital resource.
“We’ve been delighted with the response to the scheme and we’ve recently identified additional measures that can be supported and would encourage anyone with an interest to come forward and help play a part in enhancing drinking water standards.
“This scheme, combined with improvements to our treatment works at Forehill in Aberdeenshire, can make a real and positive difference for the benefit of our customers in Scotland.” nnn
wwtonline.co.uk
Photo: River Ugie Angling Association
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