Head Office Press Office
- 29-Jan-2008 - MPs have
been asked to back the Environment Agency’s
on-going campaign to raise awareness of
the dangers of flooding and support its
proposals to make strategic changes to the
way flood risk is managed.
Chris Huhne, Ed Vaizey
and Martin Salter were among 40 politicians
who met with Environment Agency experts
at the House of Commons to discuss what
their constituents can do to prepare for
flooding. MPs were also updated on what
the Environment Agency is doing to manage
flood risk in the future.
Environment Agency Regional
Director Robert Runcie said the ‘Working
Together’ meeting, arranged before the recent
heavy rainfall across the country, was "extremely
valuable". Robert Runcie added: "The
support of MPs is vital in managing flood
risk. They can take the message back to
their constituents that there are simple
ways people can protect their homes.
"MPs also have
a key role to play in helping us prepare
for the challenges and uncertainties ahead.
As last summer, and to a much lesser extent
the events of the past two weeks, have shown,
flooding is a very real threat. But the
scientific evidence shows beyond doubt that
this risk is set to increase as our weather
becomes more volatile as climate change
bites."
MPs heard that it is
not just those who live in the floodplain
that need to be prepared. Two-thirds of
the properties that flooded last summer
were inundated by overflowing sewers and
drains.
As well as promoting
the useful information on the Environment
Agency’s website http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
, MPs were asked to encourage their constituents
to find out how much they are at risk of
flooding. Less than half of all people living
in flood risk areas in England and Wales
are aware that their property is at risk
of flooding.
Constituents living
in high risk flood areas should also sign
up to the free Floodline Warnings Direct
service - which provides flood warnings
direct to your phone, mobile, fax or pager,
as well as practical advice - MPs were told.
A total 1000,000 properties situated in
areas of high flood risk in England and
Wales qualify to receive warnings from Floodline
Warnings Direct - but only 287,000, barely
40 per cent, of these vulnerable households
have registered.
MPs were advised that
people living in flood risk areas should
also take steps to prepare for flooding
and make a flood plan which includes:
• Checking how much
you are at risk of flooding by calling Floodline
on 0845 9881188 or putting your postcode
into the online flood map at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood
• Knowing how to turn
off your gas, electricity and water mains
supplies, and
• Preparing a flood
kit of essential items (including a torch,
a radio and a first aid kit).
MPs were also urged
to help keep people safe during a flood
by working with the Environment Agency and
the media to get warnings and advice across
to the public. They were also encouraged
to support a number of key recommendations
put forward in the Environment Agency’s
comprehensive Review of the 2007 Summer
Floods too, including:
1. Giving the Environment
Agency a clear overview role for urban flooding
from all sources
2. Putting measures
in place to ensure that owners and supplies
of essential public services, such as water
and electricity supplies, take responsibility
for protecting their facilities and services
against climate change impacts like increased
flood risk
3. Recognising that funding for future flood
risk management needs to increase so we
can better adapt to our changing climate.
MPs were also informed
that there are other ways they can help
lessen the risk of future flooding, including
challenging plans for new development in
areas at risk of flooding - unless there
is adequate flood risk management agreed
by the Environment Agency.
Robert Runcie said:
"We cannot eliminate the risk of flooding.
But one way to avoid creating a huge problem
for the future is to work with Government
and Local Authorities to avoid inappropriate
development in areas at risk of flooding
and to direct development away from those
areas at highest risk. MPs are well placed
to help ensure this happens."
For further information
about the Environment Agency’s flood risk
management work, visit http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/floods
+ More
Research and development
company fined after waste chemicals kill
fish in Cornish stream
Mike Dunning - 31-Jan-2008
- A Truro-based company was today ordered
to pay £3,000 in fines and costs after
a cocktail of hazardous chemicals leaked
from an industrial estate into a tributary
of the Penryn River. The case was brought
by the Environment Agency.
Members of the public
raised the alarm after a stream near the
Kernick Industrial Estate turned foamy and
started to smell ‘very strongly’ of chemicals.
Several people, including dog walkers, reported
seeing dead and dying fish and became concerned
for the safety of their pets. One eye-witness
said foam was discharging from a culvert.
The Agency launched
an investigation and took a water sample
from the stream on April 25, 2007. On analysis
it was found to contain a number of hazardous
chemicals including high concentrations
of phenolic compounds.
Preliminary inquiries
failed to trace the source of the pollution,
but further investigations led the Agency
to Advanced Oxidation Ltd - a research and
development company on the Kernick Industrial
Estate.
The site manager confirmed
there had been a pollution incident at the
site on April 24, 2007 when approximately
800 litres of hazardous liquid wastes had
escaped from the premises and entered a
surface water drain. The spill was caused
by an incorrectly fitted washer in a treatment
tank.
Liquid waste was being
transferred to the treatment tank from a
bulk container when the site manager was
distracted by a phone call. On his return
he noticed the spill, but failed to report
it to anyone until the Agency turned up
at the factory a month later.
The pollution affected
approximately 2 kms of the stream; killing
fish including eels and brown trout, producing
large amounts of foam and turning the water
a reddish orange colour.
The water sample taken
by the Agency was so strong it had to be
diluted by 5,000 times before it could be
analysed.
The court heard there
was a spill kit on site, but it was ‘woefully
inadequate’ to cope with the hazardous chemicals
at the premises, some of which had the potential
to cause severe burns, convulsions, severe
lung damage or even death.
The factory was so short
of anti-pollution equipment, at one stage,
after the spill on April 24, 2007, the site
manager asked a colleague to go to a local
supermarket to buy some cat litter to act
as an absorbent.
‘This spill was entirely
foreseeable and preventable and shows how
mismanagement of even small-scale operations
at an industrial site can have devastating
consequences for the environment,’ said
Redwynn Sterry for the Environment Agency.
‘No thought was given by the company or
the site manager to the risk their activities
posed to the environment. Pollution prevention
procedures and apparatus on site were completely
inadequate. Significant health and safety
risks were also present on site and these
also hadn’t been addressed,’ said Redwynn
Sterry.
The court heard that
Advanced Oxidation Ltd was a small company
developing new methods of treating hazardous
liquid waste using an advanced oxidation
process. Liquids treated included pesticides,
leachate and sheep scouring waste.
Advanced Oxidation,
of The Old Carriage Works, Moresk Road,
Truro, was today fined £2,500 and
ordered to pay £500 costs after pleading
guilty to three offences under the Environmental
Protection Act 11000 and Water Resources
Act 1991 including causing poisonous, noxious
or polluting matter to enter controlled
waters and disposing of controlled waste
in a manner likely to cause pollution.
+ More
Environment Agency saves
75 shropshire homes and businesses
Michelle Dolphin - 25-Jan-2008
- Environment Agency flood defences protected
75 Shropshire homes and businesses this
week as river levels rose on the River Severn.
At Frankwell and Coleham
Head, 64 properties were saved from the
damage and distress caused by flooding.
The height of the river meant that all four
stages of the defences at Frankwell were
needed and deployed. Even though work on
the Coleham Head Defences is not yet finished
they too were able to offer some protection.
Downstream at Ironbridge,
temporary barriers along the Wharfage, erected
by Environment Agency Operations Delivery
staff, saved a further 11 properties from
being inundated by floodwater.
Area Manager, Paul Tullett,
says “Once again these defences performed
exceptionally well. We worked with our partners
to save 75 Shropshire families and businesses
from the long term disruption and cost that
flooding brings.
“Our dedicated Operations
Delivery Teams turn out at all times of
day and night, monitor river conditions
and put defences up to protect people living
along the River Severn. The fact that we
are able to erect these defences, time after
time, to protect local communities from
flooding is down to them.”
