New rules for recording and reporting how much water is taken from rivers or underground sources by water companies and other abstractors will help better manage water resources, protect the environment and cut red tape, according to the Environment Agency.

Under the new regulations, which come into effect on 1 April, all abstractors will report in a standardised way the volume of water they remove at the end of every financial year, starting April 2009. But larger abstractors will be required to record more than smaller ones to reflect the risk the abstraction poses to the environment.

Ian Barker, the Environment Agency’s Head of Water Resources, said: “We regulate all water abstraction over 20 cubic metres a day and most licensed abstractors are required, as a condition of their licence, to measure the volume of water they take and submit that data to us.

“It’s the Environment Agency’s job to manage water resources across England and Wales and this information is used for compliance monitoring, long-term planning and assessing the impact that abstractions have on the water environment.

“But the current rules for deciding what data we ask abstractors to send us have evolved over time and differ across Environment Agency regions and areas depending on historic local practice. The changes will streamline the system so that all abstractors of a similar type and size in England and Wales are treated the same.

“It also means that data is collected and reported to our new National Permitting Team in a consistent way. This will enable us to better monitor abstraction and its effect on the environment, including river and wetland habitats that are home to rare and endangered species, such as the native white-clawed crayfish.”

Ian Barker added: “In line with the principles of Modern Regulation and the Hampton Review – both of which advocate simpler, but more effective, regulation – we’re planning to introduce an internet-based reporting system later this year. This will make submitting abstraction returns easier by allowing abstractors to enter data at any time rather than having to wait until the end of the abstraction period.

“To further reduce costs and unnecessary administration, licence holders will be encouraged to submit their abstraction returns via the internet. We will keep abstractors up to date with the system’s progress.”

All licence holders who are required to record and submit their abstraction volumes have been told about the new abstraction returns system. But if you have any questions about the changes you can contact the Environment Agency on 08708 506 506.

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