NRW and EA quizzed over river abstraction amounts during periods of drought
Spray irrigation: farms can abstract up to 20 cubic metres of water from a river every 24 hours without a licence under an exemption available in the 1991 Water Resources Act.
Photo: Joseph Fulgham.
Fish Legal has written to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Environment Agency (EA) asking how they control abstraction in practice during a drought after it was revealed, via an environmental information request, that NRW has no data on the number of farms abstracting water from the river Wye catchment without a licence.
According to disclosed figures, licences granted by NRW allow a total of 306,291,346 cubic metres of surface water to be abstracted from the river Wye catchment in Wales every year. Of that only 4.6% is attributed to the agricultural sector, with only six water abstraction licences issued for spray irrigation in the river Wye catchment in Wales.
However, farms can abstract up to 20 cubic metres every 24 hours without a licence under an exemption available in the Water Resources Act 1991.
The question arose as this summer’s drought developed alongside the continuing failure of 60% of the Wye – a Special Area of Conservation – to meet its environmental targets for phosphate pollution, and Fish Legal warning that low flows on the Wye need to be seen in the context of continuing pollutions of poultry manure and digestate.
Justin Neal, Solicitor at Fish Legal said, “We are extremely concerned that Natural Resources Wales does not appear to have any readily available information about the amount of water abstracted from the Wye by farmers without permits – especially at a time of drought. 20 cubic metres is the equivalent of a milk tanker being taken out of the river every single day by just one holding.
“We suspect that there are a number of permitted abstractions that may not have yet been properly determined under the Water Abstraction (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2017. We think that together with a lack of data for unlicensed abstractions this means it is very difficult for the environmental regulator to calculate safe levels of abstraction to avoid damage to habitat and the wildlife it supports.”
He added:”We fail to see how Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency can properly show that abstractions in the Wye catchment are having no adverse effect on the protected site if they don’t have a handle on exactly how much water is being taken from the river, particularly at times of exceptional low flow and high demand for water resources.”