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.
+ More
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.”
