Tell the EA

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The Agency has recently issued a call for abstractors along the river to adhere to their licence and restrict their abstractions if they are requested to do so.

Abstractors?
Licensed Abstractors?

Last year I phoned the EA - as I suspected a local stables of abstracting water - well not suspected I knew they were - I could see the hose and hear the pump. They thanked me politely and said they would check it out but also pointed out that farms were allowed to take water for watering livestock. He mentioned a figure (which I forget but which struck me as high!) which they were allowed to take annually.....


Chris

Water companies, water using industries etc are licensed to abstract water from rivers, or from the water table, perhaps supporting the rivers.

As demand for water has increased so rivers have in the past been made to run dry due to over abstraction, so a licensing scheme has been introduced whereby the Environment Agency has to weigh the balance of mainting rivers for wildlife and river users against the needs of industry and the population for a wholesome water supply.

During times of drought the balance becomes even more critical and the water companies have to demonstrate that they are doing all possible to eliminate wastage through leaks and the imposition of restrictions on car-washing, gardening etc before the EA will sanction further abstraction.

Tight Lines - leon

Thanks Leon. We have the practice but haven't given it a name that I'm aware of.

our water companies make a hefty profit from licencies and when for some strange reason the water levels drop they blatently tell the ordinary consumer using a hundred or so gallons a day to cut back and punish them with heavy water bills (for water saving improvements you understand ) instead of stopping the abstraction usually for crops or golf courses (our local even water the fairways) :mad: doing the right thing and fitting a water meter to save money AND water only gets your sewerage standing fee tripled :mad: being in a council house the council does sewer repairs untill the pipe reaches the main sewer ,you cant win :mad:

[ 03. July 2004, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

The water companies actually extract the most water (just go on flash earth and check out the River between Ipswich and the the small village upstream at Sproughton)
So I do not see them being motivated to do much.

OK I am off the soapbox now...
Tea anyone?

The pump at Sproughton is actually licensed by the EA to Anglian Water to abstract water for filling up Alton Res. The pump is automatic and will only take water when there is a certain amount of flow in the river and the amount of water abstracted is measured and recorded. There must be a minmum flow over the sill just below the pump as well.

I have always been of the opinion that water abstraction should only be allowed at the lowest freshwater point on any river and clean sewerage pumped in higher up. Obviously it would be be very expensive to do but it has many advantages. The clean sewerage would be adding to the flow that hasn't been reduced by boreholes and abstraction. With the added flow the sewerage would be more diluted than at present. It would need to be very clean otherwise there would be a lot of complaints even deaths! There would be plenty of water for us all as every part of the country would be drinking the same water over and over again! Finally, the rivers would be restored to their natural amounts of flow throughout their course.

This post has been edited by Waveney One: Apr 21 2008, 12:17 PM

You just made a hell of a case for bottled water

Drinking the same water time and time again happens in a lot of cities. London being the prime example where the main flow of the Thames, Lea etc is mainly treated sewerage and it is drunk an incredible number of times. If you take the average natural river flows in gallonage and the Thames Water Gallonage it can be worked out, but I have seen a figure of over 100 times. You wouldn't want to know what tonnage of seagull excrement goes into the London reservoirs either and we all know where they feed!

Where do you think bottled water comes from? The ground water. That further reduces the flow of the rivers! Bottled water is an environmental disgrace. It reduces river flows and pollutes the environment with the manufacture of the bottles and the delivery of it to supermarkets in huge lorries. Think about the petrol that people use to go and buy it and the disposal of the plastic after the water has been drunk. An environmental disaster as I said, mostly drunk by Greenpeace supporters and the the loonies that think we can do anything to stop the climate getting back to where it should be as we come out of a mini ice age and back to the average that it has been in the UK in Centuries past!

OK soap box put back again, now off to that fresh cup of tea that I drank last week and the month before that!