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The state of our rivers

This is the reply I received from Jesse Norman who is the MP covering the Wye in and around Hereford. Blah, blah, blah !!

Dear Paul

Thank you very much for your email.

I am afraid there has been a considerable amount of misinformation about the Environment Bill. The facts are that the Bill has not been passed but is still a work in progress, and some key clauses are still being discussed and negotiated.

As you may be aware, I and other Wye Valley MPs have been pressing the Government separately for a long-term cross-agency and cross-border approach to clean up the River Wye in the Spending Review, which is being announced this week. We need the Government's support for this vital local project, and such is the tightness of the public finances that that support is far from assured. There has been an obvious concern that a vote against the Bill at this interim stage could undermine this project's chances of success.

The need to place stronger statutory safeguards on sewage is a further and wider related issue of great importance, to which we will return in the Commons next week. You may be interested to know that much of Clause 45 has been passed and indeed strengthened from its original form. There is some concern among MPs of all parties that the short-term effect of further statutory support would simply be to drive water prices higher. All MPs want to strengthen the controls and reduce the level of sewage; the question is how best to give some extra legal strength to the new controls regime.

If you wish to, you can read the transcript of the debate on Hansard here:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commo...2-7CAF-40F2-8D93-0DE58EC702F5/EnvironmentBill

As ever,

Jesse
 
So the Government have u-turned because of all the public pressure and are committed to including a legal limit on sewerage discharges in the bill, is that correct?

If so and it’s not a fudge then that’s a testament to the efforts of everyone involved. Thanks for making a real difference.

As far as other pollution is concerned, Jesse Norman makes a very important point. The Government will now be able to say that they have done something on a national scale to help stop polllution of the rivers and seas, costly local issues like controlling phosphates in the Wye can be ignored far more easily.
 
Sort of David. As the letter above explains, it had not become law, they were still in the process of hashing it out. Basically they bowed to public pressure and listened to the amendments made to the law to pass it by the lords.
In short, it didn’t pass quality control, upset customers and had to be improved. That really is democracy in action.
 
Words are all fine and well, as is legislation, but it's only action that matters. We had good legislation in place to tackle pollution many years before I even left school, in 1974 (this was The Control of Pollution Act) and in 1991 (I had left school by this time!) we had the Urban Waste Water Treatment regulations which should have stopped most storm overflows. Now we have the Water Framework Directive and the implementing regulations for it in England and Wales. There is no need for more because we already have the legislation.
 
Didn't want to start a new thread about this ongoing tragic situation regarding the state of our rivers. I have several "news" apps on my phone to keep up with national/International/ local news.
Hardly a week goes by without there being a storyline about a "polluting incident" somewhere in the UK with some claims that the Water Co's are routinely dumping untreated sewage into our rivers.
The latest river to receive this unwanted publicity is the River Mole in Surrey.
I hate to be a defeatist but I am fast coming to the conclusion that until our citizens start to suffer severe illnesses (or death) that can be linked directly to poor water quality, nothing will be done by HM Government. It seems nothing concentrates the mind like a huge spike in the death rate.
Or am I getting confused with something else?!
 
I recently sat in on a presentation by a local fishery manager who is a research scientist. He has been sampling the silt in our local river Colne in details never been done before. The tests are frightening even more than the Raw Sewage that keeps getting dumped. You name it its in the river, Cocaine, Ketamine, Fipronil from Spot On, Lidocaine, Oestrogens etc are just a few of the regular ones. Chemicals that will abort babies in pregnant women, cause cancers etc .The Endocrine Disruptors will cause cell damage, birth defects and developmental disorders. H400 chemicals that will kill all your Invertebrates and fish. Chemicals that will never go away. Building Block chemicals should never be in the UK let alone in our river. Its a frightening project and the worry is its possibly getting into drinking water taken from the aquifers. I do wonder if these issues are in rivers all around the country and if they are getting into tap water what are we doing to ourselves.
 
I have always been a "cup half full" guy (well, I have spent most of my 70 years fishing!) and try to see things in a positive light, but Mark's post about the scale of pollution and the type of chemicals found in our rivers is truly frightening.
I feel unable to influence things though. I am a member of The Angling Trust. I regularly report non-native species to the appropriate authorities. I pick up other peoples litter whenever I see it along my local riverbanks. I write to MP's about river pollution and have tried to get Water Companies to take responsibility.
I get really angry and frustrated and have to go and have a few hours fishing to calm me down.
Trouble is, sitting on the riverbank, I'm constantly reminded about the poor state of our rivers!!
John Wilson moved to Thailand because he was fed up with the destruction of the Wensum (amongst other rivers) Moving there isn't an option for me, but what I will do is continue to try and make those in authority take notice.
Meanwhile, I'm off to fish the Upper Bure tomorrow. Tight Lines 🎣
 
I think the court viewed that four of the six test cases presented by UU would still come under new pollution legislation, but that two off-site plants would be outside of a prosecution case directed towards UU. I'm not that adept at reading legal jargon but that's what I made form the ruling.
 
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