Thursday, January 20, 2022
Is river pollution being neglected in Wales?
The BBC reports on the view of Gail Davies-Walsh, chief executive of Afonydd Cymru, which represents Wales' rivers' trusts, who asserts that thousands of small-scale water pollution spills are not being looked into in Wales, adding up to a "massive issue".
Her statemnet follows criticism of a leaked document suggesting staff at England's Environment Agency (EA) should ignore low-impact pollution events:
Described as an "appalling scandal" by the UK Rivers' Trust, an internal briefing to EA staff on how to handle pollution was leaked to the media.
The Guardian newspaper and Ends Report found that bosses had shown support for "no response" to low-impact environmental incidents because of a lack of funding to investigate them.
Now campaigners in Wales have accused NRW of taking a similar approach for years and said a change in culture at the watchdog was needed.
A guidance note from 2017 on NRW's website suggests the majority of low-level impact incidents would not "merit attendance" by officials, nor an immediate response.
Examples of river pollution cases that fall into this category include those that cause "minor loss of fish habitat" or kill a small number of fish from species that are not rare.
The same applies to incidents that give rise to minor public health problems, including "a few individuals with temporary sore throats".
Spills that kill one or two adult salmon or sea trout could also be classed as low-impact, though fisheries officers would need to be consulted.
Stocks of the fish have hit such "unprecedented lows" in recent years that NRW has introduced new bylaws forcing anglers to throw back their catch for a decade.
The document notes that media interest or a risk to NRW's reputation should be one factor used to weigh up whether an incident merits a response.
...
NRW figures from 2019 show it received 7,423 incident reports, of which 29% were related to water pollution.
"The problem with smaller cases is that on their own they're not being considered a major issue, but added together they're having more of an effect on our rivers than any one big incident," said Richard Garner Williams from the South East Wales Rivers Trust.
NRW has repeatedly warned about funding pressures in recent years, and Ms Davies-Walsh agreed that lack of resources was part of the problem but said "a change in culture" was also needed, to focus on strong enforcement.
Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said environmental watchdogs like NRW were lacking "sufficient capacity" to properly do their job.
"We've seen regulators defunded over the last couple of decades, less money available to investigate farming pollution and water company misbehaviour," he said.
A decade of "radical action" was needed to hold polluters to account and force investment in cleaning up rivers and seas to help fight climate change, he added.
Funding is clearly at the heart of this problem, and it is up to Welsh Ministers to put this right.
Her statemnet follows criticism of a leaked document suggesting staff at England's Environment Agency (EA) should ignore low-impact pollution events:
Described as an "appalling scandal" by the UK Rivers' Trust, an internal briefing to EA staff on how to handle pollution was leaked to the media.
The Guardian newspaper and Ends Report found that bosses had shown support for "no response" to low-impact environmental incidents because of a lack of funding to investigate them.
Now campaigners in Wales have accused NRW of taking a similar approach for years and said a change in culture at the watchdog was needed.
A guidance note from 2017 on NRW's website suggests the majority of low-level impact incidents would not "merit attendance" by officials, nor an immediate response.
Examples of river pollution cases that fall into this category include those that cause "minor loss of fish habitat" or kill a small number of fish from species that are not rare.
The same applies to incidents that give rise to minor public health problems, including "a few individuals with temporary sore throats".
Spills that kill one or two adult salmon or sea trout could also be classed as low-impact, though fisheries officers would need to be consulted.
Stocks of the fish have hit such "unprecedented lows" in recent years that NRW has introduced new bylaws forcing anglers to throw back their catch for a decade.
The document notes that media interest or a risk to NRW's reputation should be one factor used to weigh up whether an incident merits a response.
...
NRW figures from 2019 show it received 7,423 incident reports, of which 29% were related to water pollution.
"The problem with smaller cases is that on their own they're not being considered a major issue, but added together they're having more of an effect on our rivers than any one big incident," said Richard Garner Williams from the South East Wales Rivers Trust.
NRW has repeatedly warned about funding pressures in recent years, and Ms Davies-Walsh agreed that lack of resources was part of the problem but said "a change in culture" was also needed, to focus on strong enforcement.
Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said environmental watchdogs like NRW were lacking "sufficient capacity" to properly do their job.
"We've seen regulators defunded over the last couple of decades, less money available to investigate farming pollution and water company misbehaviour," he said.
A decade of "radical action" was needed to hold polluters to account and force investment in cleaning up rivers and seas to help fight climate change, he added.
Funding is clearly at the heart of this problem, and it is up to Welsh Ministers to put this right.
