NEW APPROACH TO REGULATING DISCHARGES TO WATER

National Press Office - 2-Apr-2008 - The Environment Agency today (Wednesday) announced improvements to the way it regulates water company discharges to strike a better balance between improving the environment, rewarding good environmental performance and taking tough action against those who fail to meet acceptable standards.

Following last year’s consultation on ‘Risk based regulation of discharges to water: Encouraging better environmental performance by business’, the Environment Agency has incorporated input from industry and environmental stakeholders ahead of introducing the changes in April 2009.

This new approach to regulating discharges to water uses an Operator and Pollution Risk Appraisal (OPRA) system and Operating Self Monitoring (OSM) to ensure direct links between the risk of an activity, the environmental performance of an operator and the charges levied under the polluter-pays principle.

Environment Agency Director of Environment Protection Tricia Henton said: “The Environment Agency wants operators to take a greater responsibility for their environmental impact. Modern regulation is all about allocating resources proportionate to risk, so that businesses are performance driven and the end result is a better environment.”

The Environment Agency regulates 110,000 discharge consents in England and Wales across many sectors, including industrial operators, breweries, fish-farms, mines and quarries; but the changes will first be introduced to water companies which are responsible for 70% of all consented discharges to water.

Tricia Henton continued: “Water companies have the potential to secure the biggest environmental gains through regulatory change and are best equipped to implement the changes, with many already having monitoring mechanisms in place.”

The changes will mean responsibility for monitoring discharges will transfer to operators (OSM), using formally certified monitoring systems to collect, analyse and report on the quality of discharges. The Environment Agency will audit all operator procedures and undertake formal inspection of all sites to ensure procedures are robust and discharge results are compliant with consents.

“Operator Self Monitoring is consistent with the approach used by the Drinking Water Inspectorate to assure the quality of the water we all drink,” said Tricia Henton.

This allows the Environment Agency to focus regulatory efforts on the worst environmental performers – using OPRA to assess pollution hazards, determine how many inspections a site should receive based on that hazard risk and how much the operator should pay in fees and charges.

Tricia Henton continued: “OPRA and OSM have been successfully applied over many years in the regulation of our most hazardous waste sites under the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime.

“By giving operators the incentive of reduced charges to improve performance and reduce risk, the outcome is better for the environment.”

The Environment Agency will continue its existing environmental monitoring and surveillance program which is already used to help identify operators that have breached their discharge consents or been responsible for pollution incidents.

“Those operators that fail to meet existing high standards will feel the full impact of enforcement action. There will be no tolerance of poor environmental performance,” added Tricia Henton.

This new risk based regulation of discharges to water is consistent with the Government’s ‘Better Regulation’ agenda and will protect the environment, whilst ensuring that the Environment Agency continues to provide robust regulatory inspection and enforcement where required.

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Nottinghamshire County Council helps Environment Agency protect Trent villages from flooding

Michelle Dolphin - 4-Apr-2008 - The Environment Agency and Nottinghamshire County Council are working together to help protect residents of villages such as Burton Joyce and Gunthorpe from flooding.

We have received confirmation that the Council is willing to contribute £150,000 towards the Local Levy Schemes planned for their area during 2008 – 2009.

Area Flood Risk Manager, Paul Lockhart, says “I was delighted to hear of Nottinghamshire County Council’s offer of assistance. Working in partnership like this for the good of local rural communities is good news for people living in the county’s vulnerable villages along the Trent downstream of Nottingham.

“This additional £150,000 will allow us to do so much more to protect communities from the damage and distress caused by flooding.”

The additional funding will be used to help support work that we plan to carry out during 2008 - 2009 which includes:

Gunthorpe, Cottage Pasture Lane

New flood embankment and improvements to an existing bank to provide local protection to properties that suffered flooding in November 2000 and narrowly escaped flooding again in June 2007. The scheme is currently in the design stage and programmed to be built in late summer 2008.

Cost: £100,000

Properties Protected: 18

Burton Joyce Phase 2

A new flood bank to remove a low section in the existing flood defences around the Station Road level crossing. The new embankment will also provide safe dry access to the new pumping station which is currently under construction on the Crock Dumble. This will allow us to attend to the pumping station safely during a flood event.

Cost: £700,000

Properties protected: 307

Lowdham Flood Wall

We have bid for funding from the Regional Flood Defence Committee for a flood wall to offer increased protection to around 20 properties at risk of flooding. This area of Lowdham was flooded during the events of June and July 2007. Some families have still not returned to their homes.

Cost: £100,000

Properties protected: 20

Improving Flood Resistance

Following the success of recent work at Gunthorpe we are planning to select further properties for work to improve the flood resistance of homes. Sites are being examined at the moment but the work will be again be focused on those properties at risk in the Trent Valley. We anticipate that we will be able to help around 40 properties with a package of measures which not only includes flood guards but also looks at under floor pumps, surface treatment for brick work and alterations to private drainage.

Cost: £250,000

Properties: 40

Nottinghamshire County Councillor Chris Baron, Cabinet Member for Finance and Property, said “The County Council is very supportive of the Local Levy Schemes planned for Gunthorpe, Burton Joyce, and Lowdham and we are more than happy in assisting other public agencies in remedial work.

“The schemes being suggested do offer a rational next step in the ongoing development of flood defences and is consistent with the Environment Agency’s overall strategy.

“Flooding of homes is very traumatic for those who suffer it and raises anxiety among others whose homes are at risk elsewhere.

“Investment in effective flood defence schemes will reduce the financial and emotional costs of property flooding, and will be beneficial to the communities involved.

“It is important to recognise that these schemes, welcome as they certainly are, do not seek to prevent flooding; rather they provide a higher level of protection than would otherwise exist.”