National
press office - 21-Nov-2008 - The Environment
Agency has today (Friday) published a report
scrutinising the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority’s (NDA) research and development
work on gas generation and migration from
a geological disposal facility.
The Environment Agency
would be responsible for regulating disposal
of radioactive waste to such a facility,
and the NDA must satisfy the Environment
Agency that people and the environment would
be protected.
The Environment Agency
report concludes that the NDA’s research
has identified most of the processes likely
to generate gas and many of the issues that
may affect long term safety. The Environment
Agency recommends further work to provide
the information needed during the selection
of a site for nuclear waste disposal, to
demonstrate understanding of gas behaviour
in alternative repository designs and in
a range of different geologies.
Dr Clive Williams, the
Environment Agency’s Policy Development
Manager for Radioactive Substances Regulation,
said: "This report represents one part
of our expert regulatory scrutiny work.
"We will provide
strong and independent regulation throughout
the lengthy implementation programme for
a geological disposal facility, to ensure
that people and the environment will be
protected. Gas generation and migration
from such a facility are recognised as important
issues, and the NDA, together with overseas
and international organisations, have already
done some good work in this field. We are
identifying specific areas that we consider
the NDA should focus on in the future."
The full report, Gas
generation and migration from a deep geological
repository for radioactive waste, can be
found at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/444304/945835/1085253/1085276/
<http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/444304/945835/1085253/1085276/>
Further reports on the
development of concepts for the disposal
of higher activity radioactive waste to
a geological repository will be published
by Spring 2009.
+ More
Hands on conservation
in bid to save threatened crayfish
Paul Gainey - 21-Nov-2008
- The white-clawed crayfish, the UK’s only
native crayfish and freshwater relative
of the lobster, is to be given a much needed
helping hand in the South West.
A project between the
Environment Agency, Avon Wildlife Trust
and Bristol Water heralds the start of a
concerted effort in the next few years to
curb the dramatic decline of native crayfish
across the region, by translocating them
from threatened areas to specially selected
refuge streams.
The first rescues will
take place on Wednesday this week when a
population near Bristol is transported in
cooled tanks to its new habitat, near Blagdon.
White-clawed crayfish
are threatened throughout their European
range from changes to habitat, water quality
and pollution. However, the increasing threat
is from non-indigenous crayfish species
such as the American signal crayfish.
‘Signal crayfish aggressively
push out native crayfish and most devastatingly,
carry a fatal fungal disease responsible
for wiping out many British populations,’
said the project’s coordinator Lydia Robbins
of Avon Wildlife Trust.
Due to crayfish ‘plague’
the Bristol Avon catchment has recently
lost three of its four most abundant native
populations. Unfortunately research into
fully eradicating signal crayfish from river
systems, including by intensive trapping
has to date proved unsuccessful.
The alien invaders were
originally imported for food in the 1970s,
but have escaped or been illegally released
into the wild. They also threaten more than
our crayfish as new research shows their
extensive impact on other species, such
as trout and salmon numbers.
‘Translocating white-clawed
crayfish to refuge sites mitigates the threat
from American signal crayfish by actively
conserving populations. It is hoped by introductions
to more isolated areas they will re-establish
because they are an important part of river
ecosystems in the South West,’ said Peter
Sibley from the Environment Agency.
As Britain's largest
freshwater invertebrate they are a natural
component of other animals' diet including
trout, otters and herons. To avoid predation
crayfish are nocturnal, hiding in refuges
during the day. As omnivores their diet
of plant and animal matter varies widely,
from fallen leaves to small invertebrates
and fish.
‘It was important not
to harm the resident ecology when transferring
crayfish to new sites so scientific tests
examining water quality and in-stream and
riparian cover have been undertaken,’ added
Peter Sibley.
‘It is also imperative
we carefully monitor these translocations
to evaluate their success so as to inform
further strategic conservation and to clarify
that trapping American signal crayfish for
food is not of any conservation benefit,
contrary to popular belief, and increases
the risk of spreading crayfish plague,’
added Lydia Robbins.
Jeremy Williams of Bristol
Water said: ‘We are very pleased to be involved
in such a project, the security of the species
may well depend on such efforts.’
If you have spotted
a crayfish or for related advice, contact
your local Environment Agency office.
Ends
Please note: locations
of crayfish, especially the receptor sites
is sensitive information. The locations/directions
should not be disclosed in the media. Media
who wish to cover the movement of the crayfish
should ring the Environment Agency press
office on 01392 442008 or ring Lydia Robbins
on 07773 369477.
+ More
River Soar fish population
gets a boost
Emily Poyser - 20-Nov-2008
Today, Thursday 20 November 2008, the Environment
Agency released another 5,000 baby fish
into the River Soar in the next phase of
a planned re-stocking programme following
a major pollution incident in July 2006.
The 2006 incident killed
an estimated 10,000 fish, including barbel,
bleak, bream, chub, perch, pike and roach.
The same year, we released the first 14,000
new fish into the river and, in 2007, a
further 10,000 fish.
The fish introduced
today included 2000 barbel, 2000 dace, 500
chub and 500 roach. All of them were bred
at the Environment Agency’s coarse fish
farm at Calverton in Nottinghamshire. The
work is funded from the sale of rod licences.
They were spread between
two sites within Watermead Country Park
(both the North and South parks). This site
was chosen because of its proximity to the
site of the 2006 fish kill and because it
is easy for people from Leicester City to
get to. This will give local anglers an
added incentive to get out fishing.
Fisheries Team Leader,
Simon Ward, says “This is yet another example
of how we are using funds from the sale
of rod licences to improve fishing for everyone.
We hope that by boosting fish populations
in the River Soar so close to Leicester
it will encourage people to get out and
go fishing. But, to fish legally, they need
to buy a rod licence first unless they have
a valid one already. The money invested
by anglers when they buy a rod licence will
help us to do even more to improve the sport
of angling for the future.”
+ More
Dairy fined after pollution
kills fish in Devon stream
Mike Dunning - 20-Nov-2008
- A Somerset dairy company was today ordered
to pay more than £9,000 in fines and
costs after milk waste escaped from a North
Devon cheese factory and polluted a stream.
The case was brought by the Environment
Agency.
More than 70 fish including
brown trout and bullhead died after waste
from Higher Alminstone Farm, Woolsery entered
a tributary of the Dipple Water. The farm
is the main processing site for cheese manufacturer,
Parkham Farms Limited.
The Agency visited the
farm on June 29, 2008 after receiving a
report of pollution in the Dipple Water.
Arriving at Melbury Bridge the officer saw
the stream had turned a milky colour. He
made his way upstream to Higher Alminstone
Farm where he found an underground storage
tank overflowing with waste milk.
The officer returned
the following day and found the stream below
the discharge ditch was coated in a white
powdery sediment. There was an odour of
sour milk. Numerous colonies of blood worms,
a sign of gross pollution, were present
in the stream.
A number of dead brown
trout and bullhead were recovered from the
stream. Most measured up to 8 inches, but
the casualties included a trout of 12 inches.
Several were found washed up against a trash
dam near the confluence of the Dipple Water
and River Torridge
Samples of stream water
taken near the farm contained depleted levels
of dissolved oxygen.
Agency officers introduced
liquid Hydrogen Peroxide to the stream in
a bid to restore oxygen levels.
An investigation revealed
a member of staff, unfamiliar with the farm’s
waste treatment plant, had accidentally
switched on a valve and left it on causing
a storage tank to overflow.
‘More than two kilometres
of an important tributary of the River Torridge
were polluted as a result of this incident
that was one of the worst we’ve seen for
some time. Milk waste can be very harmful
when it enters rivers and streams because
it strips the water of oxygen causing fish
to suffocate. While we managed to recover
more than 70 dead trout and coarse fish,
the total number killed would have been
considerably higher,’ said Andrew Leyman
for the Environment Agency.
Parkham Farms
Limited, of St John’s House, Castle Street,
Taunton, was today fined £6,700 and
ordered to pay £2,583 costs by Barnstaple
magistrates after pleading guilty to on
or before June 29, 2008 causing polluting
matter, namely milk washings, to enter controlled
waters contrary to Section 85(1) of the
Water Resources Act 1991.
